ABSTRACT Several species of the genus
Passiflora are distributed all over
South America, and many of these species are used in popular
medicine, mainly as
sedatives and tranquilizers. This study analyzes the chemical profile of extracts of four
Passiflora species used in
folk medicine, focusing on the
flavonoids,
alkaloids and
saponins. We employed simple and fast
fingerprint analysis methods by
high performance liquid chromatography, ultra performance
liquid chromatography and
capillary electrophoresis techniques. The
analysis led to the
detection and identification of C-glycosylflavonoids in all the
plant extracts, these being the main constituents in P. tripartita var. mollissima and P. bogotensis.
Saponins were observed only in P. alata and P. quadrangularis, while harmane
alkaloids were not detected in any of the analyzed extracts in concentrations higher than 0.0187 ppm, the
detection limit determined for the UPLC
method.