Efeito da Astrocaryum aculeatum (Tucumã) na toxicidade da Doxorrubicina: modelo experimental in vivo

Amazonian palm tree fruits: From nutritional value to diversity of new food products

The rapid growth of the world population has increased the demand for new food sources, constituting a major challenge concerning the maximum use of existing food resources. The fruits of Amazonian palm trees have excellent nutritional composition and bioactive compounds. This review highlights four fruits of Amazonian palm trees that are still little explored by the food industry: açai (Euterpe oleracea), pupunha (Bactris gasipaes), buriti (Mauritia flexuosa), and tucumã (Astrocaryum aculeatum). This paper aims to inspire new ideas for researching and developing products for the food industry. It also explores the impacts of Amazonian palm fruits on health, highlighting their role in disease prevention through their nutritional effects.

Brazilian tucumã-do-Amazonas (Astrocaryum aculeatum) and tucumã-do-Pará (Astrocaryum vulgare) fruits: bioactive composition, health benefits, and technological potential

Latin America has a wide range of native plants spread through its territory. The palms of the Astrocaryum genus are examples of crops occurring in Central and South America, including the large plant life in Brazil. Although not very well known, the Astrocaryum spp. possess edible and non-edible fractions with potential technological and medicinal uses, as evidenced by recent research. Two native Brazilian fruits, tucumã-do-Amazonas (Astrocaryum aculeatum) and tucumã-do-Pará (Astrocaryum vulgare), typically found in the north and northeast of the country, respectively, stand out for their high antioxidant capacity and rich content in bioactive compounds, mainly carotenoids and phenolic compounds. Accordingly, experimental studies indicate their potential to prevent and treat inflammatory and oxidative stress-related conditions, including cancer. The tucumã plants have also been suggested as tools in the industry, for example for biofuel production, activated carbon technology, and as alternative packaging. Considering the importance of bringing light to underestimated yet culturally relevant native crops with potential benefits for small and large communities, this review aims to present and discuss the characteristics, bioactive composition, health effects, and technological potential of tucumã-do-Amazonas and tucumã-do-Pará fruits.

Functional and nutritional properties of selected Amazon fruits: A review

This review reports the nutritional, phytochemical compounds and biological properties of 4 fruits commonly consumed by people living in Amazon region, namely Biribá (Rollinia mucosa Jacq.), Rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum L.), Pupunha (Bactris gasipaes Kunth) and Tucumã (Astrocaryum aculeatum Meyer). These fruits have been high held nutritional, functional and economic potential and contribute to the daily intake of nutrients, energy and bioactive compounds by people living in Amazon rainforest region. Phytochemical compounds with biological properties were detected in these fruits, for instance (but not limited to), annonaceous acetogenins in Biribá, geraniin and corilagin in Rambutan, rutin and catechin in Pupunha, and β-carotene and flavonoids in Tucumã. The biological properties of Biribá, Rambutan, Pupunha and Tucumã have been evaluated by in vitro and in vivo assays, especially antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. Therefore, these Amazonian fruits can be exploited by the food industry as a food and therapeutic plant-material to develop valuable products, such as medicine products and can be used as sources for obtaining compounds for the food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical applications.

Essential and fixed oils from Amazonian fruits: proprieties and applications

The Amazon biome is rich in oilseed plant species, which have essential physical-chemical, nutritional and pharmacological properties, in addition to potential economic value for different biotechnological and industrial applications. In the extraction of fixed oils, some Amazon fruit that are oleaginous matrices are acquiring more prominence, such as tucumã (Astrocaryum vulgare), pupunha (Bactris gasipaes), buriti (Mauritia flexuosa), Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa), pracaxi (Pentaclethra macroloba), patawa (Oenocarpus bataua), among others. These oilseed fruits have natural antioxidants, essential fatty acids, and good oxidative stability. The essential oils from these oilseed species have antibiotic and anti-inflammatory properties, in addition to the presence of natural antioxidants, such as carotenoids and tocopherols. Thus, Amazonian oilseed species are valuable resources. For these properties to be preserved during fruit processing, the process of extracting the oil is critical. More studies are needed on their properties and applications, seeking to add commercial value, and the optimization of oils and fats processing to obtain quality products. Therefore, this article aims to present Amazonian fruits' potential to obtain fixed and essential oils and possible application in the food industry.

Anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic activity of glycosidic derivatives of lawsone in melanoma cancer cell

Background

Melanoma is a malignant cancer that affects melanocytes and is considered the most aggressive skin-type cancer. The prevalence for melanoma cancer for the last five year is about one million cases. The impact caused of this and other types of cancer, revel the importance of research into potential active compounds. The natural products are an important source of compounds with biological activity and research with natural products may enable the discovery of compounds with potential activity in tumor cells.

Methods

The Sulforhodamine B was used to determine cell density after treatment with lawsone derivatives. Apoptosis and necrosis were analyzed by flow cytometer. Morphological changes were observed by fluorescence using the Phalloidin/FITC and DAPI stains. The clonogenic and wound healing assays were used to analyze reduction of colonies formation and migratory capacity of melanoma cells, respectability.

Results

In pharmacological screening, seven compounds derived from lawsone were considered to have high cytotoxic activity (GI > 75%). Three compounds were selected to assess the inhibitory concentration for 50% of cells (IC₅₀), and the compound 9, that has IC₅₀ 5.3 μM in melanoma cells, was selected for further analyses in this cell line. The clonogenic assay showed that the compound is capable of reducing the formation of melanoma colonies at 10.6 μM concentration. The compound induced apoptotic morphological changes in melanoma cells and increased by 50% the cells dying from apoptosis. Also, this compound reduced the migratory capacity of melanoma cells.

Conclusions

The results of this study showed that the evaluated lawsone derivatives have potential activity on tumor cells. The compound 9 is capable of inducing cell death by apoptosis in melanoma cells (B16F10).

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12885-021-08404-4.

Modelagem e propriedades termodinâmicas da secagem do epicarpo, mesocarpo e endocarpo do tucumã (Astrocaryum aculeatum)

Resumo O tucumã é um fruto amazônico, possui alto poder nutricional e é utilizado em diversos segmentos econômicos. Portanto, estudos para a redução de umidade devem ser realizados para o aumento do tempo de prateleira deste fruto. Este trabalho tem como objetivo realizar o estudo de secagem do epicarpo (casca), mesocarpo (polpa) e endocarpo (amêndoa) do tucumã nas temperaturas de 60 ºC, 70 ºC e 80 ºC. Foi observado que o aumento da temperatura reduziu o tempo de queda da razão de umidade do epicarpo, mesocarpo e endocarpo. Modelos matemáticos foram utilizados para estimar dados experimentais e foram calculadas propriedades termodinâmicas do processo. Baseado no maior R2 e o menor SE e DQM, o modelo Logístico apresentou melhor ajuste para cinética de secagem dentre os avaliados, estimando energia de ativação de 39,50 kJ mol-1, 46,62 kJ mol-1 e 17,76 kJ mol-1 para o epicarpo, mesocarpo e endocarpo, respectivamente. Os resultados das propriedades termodinâmicas mostraram que a entalpia (ΔH) caracteriza a secagem como um processo endotérmico. A entropia (ΔS) diminui com o aumento da temperatura. Os valores da energia de Gibbs são positivos, ou seja, o processo é não espontâneo e necessita de energia externa para difusividade da água no ar.

Bioactive compounds and health benefits of some palm species traditionally used in Africa and the Americas - A review

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

According to previous ethno-medicinal reviews, Cocos nucifera, Elaeis guineensis and Phoenix dactylifera are among the main palms which are often used on the American and African continents to treat infections, infestations and disorders in the digestive, respiratory, genito-urinary, dermal, endocrine, cardiovascular, muscular-skeletal, mental and neural systems, as well as neoplasms, dental issues and metabolic and nutritional disorders. In addition, one or more species of the wild genera Acrocomia, Areca, Astrocaryum, Attalea, Bactris, Borassus, Calamus, Chamaedorea, Chamaerops, Euterpe, Hyphaene, Mauritia, Oenocarpus and Syagrus have a high number of records of these ethno-medicinal uses. The most used parts of the palm tree are the fruits, followed by roots, seeds, leaves and flower sap.

AIM OF THE STUDY

This review discusses the phytochemical composition and the pharmacological properties of these important ethno-medicinal palms, aiming to provide a contribution to future research prospects.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Significant information was compiled from an electronic search in widely used international scientific databases (Google Scholar, Science Direct, SciFinder, Web of Science, PubMed, Wiley on line Library, Scielo, ACS Publications), and additional information was obtained from dissertations, theses, books and other relevant websites.

RESULTS

Palms, in general, are rich in oils, terpenoids and phenolic compounds. Fruits of many species are notable for their high content of healthy oils and fat-soluble bioactive compounds, mainly terpenoids, such as pigment carotenoids (and provitamin A), phytosterols, triterpene pentacyclics and tocols (and vitamin E), while other species stood out for their phenolic compounds derived from benzoic and cinnamic acids, along with flavan-3-ol, flavone, flavonol, and stilbene compounds or anthocyanin pigments. In addition to fruits, other parts of the plant such as seeds, leaves, palm heart, flowers and roots are also sources of many bioactive compounds. These compounds are linked to the ethno-medicinal use of many palms that improve human health against infections, infestations and disorders of human systems.

CONCLUSIONS

Palms have provided bioactive samples that validate their effectiveness in traditional medicine. However, the intensive study of all palm species related to ethno-medicinal use is needed, along with selection of the most appropriate palm accessions, ripe stage of the fruit and /or part of the plant. Furthermore, the complete profiles of all phytochemicals, their effects on animal models and human subjects, and toxicological and clinical trials are suggested, which, added to the incorporation of improved technological processes, should represent a significant advance for the implementation of new opportunities with wide benefits for human health.