Isolation and Chemical Characterization of Antifungal, Antioxidant, and Anti-Inflammatory Compounds from Centrosema coriaceum using GC/MS, UFLC-QTOF-MS, and FACE.

In recent years, natural products with biological activities have been increasingly researched. The elucidation of phytoconstituents is necessary for the development of drugs as a natural alternative for the treatment of various diseases. The work aimed to evaluate in vitro and in silico bioactivities of hexane (CCHE) and methanol (CCME) fractions of ethanolic extract from Centrosema coriaceum Benth (Fabaceae) leaves and elucidate their phytoconstituents. CCHE and CCME showed antifungal activity for Candida glabrata (MIC of 1000 µg/mL) with fungistatic effect and action in cell envelope by sorbitol and ergosterol assays. CCHE and CCME presented promising antioxidant activity against the DPPH radical with IC50 of 13.61±0.50 and 6.31±0.40 µg/mL, respectively, and relative antioxidant activity (RAA%) of 45.77±3.61/ 28.53±2.25 % for CCHE and 82.18±2.25/51.99±3.23 % for CCME when compared to rutin and quercetin, respectively. Moreover, these fractions demonstrated promising results for the inhibition of lipid peroxidation by ß-carotene/linoleic acid assay. For anti-inflammatory and cytotoxicity activities, CCHE and CCME significantly inhibited the production of nitric oxide and TNF-α, without toxicity on murine intraperitoneal macrophages, respectively. Esters, alkanes, steroids, tocopherols, and terpenes were identified in CCHE by GC/MS. Flavonoids, phenolic acids, and disaccharides were detected in CCME by UFLC-QTOF-MS and FACE. Furthermore, rutin was purified from CCME. In silico predictions evidenced that compounds present in both fractions have high affinity to the fungal membrane besides antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. Based on these observations, CCHE and CCME have a noteworthy potential for the design of novel antifungal and anti-inflammatory agents that should be explored in future studies.

Combining UFLC-QTOF-MS analysis with biological evaluation of Centrosema coriaceum (Fabaceae) leaves.

Centrosema coriaceum Benth belongs to Fabaceae family and have few studies of biological activity and chemical composition. Thus, the aims of this work were to determine chemical profile of the ethanolic extract of C. coriaceum leaves (CCE) by UFLC-QTOF-MS and to evaluate its in vitro biological potential. CCE showed MIC value of 1000 µg/mL against Candida glabrata (fungistatic effect) and high affinity in cell envelope by increasing cell permeability in nucleotide leakage, sorbitol and ergosterol assays. CCE showed antioxidant activity in all assays performed. For the anti-inflammatory and cytotoxicity activities, CCE, at all tested concentrations, significantly inhibited the production of nitric oxide and did not decrease J774A.1 cell viability below 70%. Finally, rutin, kaempferol-3O-rutinoside, caffeic acid, and sucrose were identified in CCE by UFLC-QTOF-MS. These results suggest, for the first time, that C. coriaceum has interesting antifungal, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory activities.

Photodynamic evaluation of tetracarboxy-phthalocyanines in model systems.

The present work reports the synthesis, photophysical and photochemical characterization and photodynamic evaluation of zinc, aluminum and metal free-base tetracarboxy-phthalocyanines (ZnPc, AlPc and FbPc, respectively). To evaluate the possible application of phthalocyanines as a potential photosensitizer the photophysical and photochemical characterization were performed using aqueous (phosphate-buffered solution, PBS) and organic (dimethyl sulfoxide, DMSO) solvents. The relative lipophilicity of the compounds was estimated by the octanol-water partition coefficient and the photodynamic activity evaluated through the photooxidation of a protein and photohemolysis. The photooxidation rate constants (k) were obtained and the hemolytic potential was evaluated by the maximum percentage of hemolysis achieved (Hmax) and the time (t50) to reach 50% of the Hmax. Although these phthalocyanines are all hydrophilic and possess very low affinity for membranes (log PO/W=-2.0), they led to significant photooxidation of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and photohemolysis. Our results show that ZnPc was the most efficient photosensitizer, followed by AlPc and FbPc; this order is the same as the order of the triplet and singlet oxygen quantum yields (ZnPc>AlPc>FbPc). Furthermore, together, the triplet, fluorescence and singlet oxygen quantum yields of zinc tetracarboxy-phthalocyanines suggest their potential for use in theranostic applications, which simultaneously combines photodiagnosis and phototherapy.