ANÁLISE FITOQUÍMICA E AVALIAÇÃO DA ATIVIDADE ANTIPARASITÁRIA DOS EXTRATOS DAS FOLHAS DE Hancornia speciosa

Abstract

Medicinal plants are viable alternatives, being used for the treatment of an important range of diseases, since the metabolites present in them demonstrate a great diversity of biological responses. In this study, we carried out a phytochemical analysis and evaluation of the antiparasitic activity of leaf extracts of Hancornia speciosa, popularly known as mangabeira, against the parasites Trypanosoma cruzi and Schistosoma mansoni. Leaves of the referred specie were collected in the city of Urutaí - GO. The ethanolic extract was evaluated for the presence of the main classes of compounds: organic acids, coumarins, polysaccharides, reducing sugars, phenols, catechin tannins, anthraquinones, steroids and triterpenoids, foaming saponins, alkaloids, flavonoids, and purines. Preliminary research on the leaf extracts of H. speciosa allows a prior assessment of its phytochemical characteristics. The preliminar antiparasitic evaluation of the fractions was ineffective against S. mansoni, but we obtained promising results for the hexane fraction against T. cruzi.