Chemometric studies in Hymenaea martiana

Abstract

Hymenaea martiana Hayne's bark and resin are widely used in folk medicine for the treatment of various diseases, however the indiscriminate extractivism of its barks brings damage to its metabolism and development. In view this, the discovery of ways for a more rational use of the species becomes relevant. This study aims to evaluate possible similarities in chemical composition profile of different parts from H. martiana (barks, stalks and leaves) through the fingerprint by ¹H-NMR and FT-IR techniques. The principal component analysis (PCA) showed metabolic similarities between the barks and stalks in two spectroscopic techniques used. The similarity is explained by presence of sucrose and pinitol in both segments as main compounds of segments. The antioxidant activity profile, showed similarity corroborating thus, with observed in metabolic analysis, where IC₅₀ values showed no statistical difference between the barks (10.73 ± 0.12 µg.mL⁻¹) and stalks (8.40 ± 0.58 µg.mL⁻¹). In our results, the PCA showed a difference in the leaves fingerprint of one specimen collected. As pointed also by PCA analysis, this individual was over stress situation which promoted the biosynthesis of monoterpene linalool, a compound with defensor properties from plants. Furthermore, the similarities between the barks and stalks observed may be an indication of similar biological activity and may direct other studies in order to reduce the extraction of the barks and minimize the damage to the species.