Publications by authors named "Douglas Costa Gontijo"

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: The Tabernaemontana genus belongs to the Apocynaceae family of which 30 species are found in Brazil. Some Tabernaemontana species are used by Brazilian indigenous people and other communities, or are listed in the Yanomami Pharmacopeia. Ethnopharmacological data include use(s) for muscle problems, depressed sternum, back pain, abscess, indigestion, eye irritation, earache, itching, vaginal discharge, as an aid for older people who are slow and forgetful, mosquito and snake bites, infection by the human botfly larvae, calmative, and fever.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Ethnopharmacology and botanical taxonomy are valid criteria used to selecting plants for antimalarial bioprospection purposes. Based on these two criteria, ethanol extracts of 11 plants from Santarém City vicinities, Western Pará State, Brazilian Amazonia, had their in vitro antiplasmodial activity against chloroquine-resistant Plasmodium falciparum (W2 clone) assessed by the PfLDH method, whereas their cytotoxicity to HepG2-A16 cells was assessed through MTT assay. Acmella oleracea, Siparuna krukovii and Trema micrantha extracts disclosed the highest rate of parasite growth inhibition (90 %) in screening tests.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Different species of the Simaroubaceae family are used in traditional medicine to treat malaria. Among these is Homalolepis suffruticosa (syn. Simaba suffruticosa and Quassia suffruticosa), which is native to Central Brazil and popularly known as calunga.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: A great variety of bioactive natural products has been reported for different Palicourea and Psychotria species (Rubiaceae). However, few of them as well as few of species of these botanical genera have been evaluated for antiplasmodial activity.

Objective: To assess the antiplasmodial activity of 24 extracts from Palicourea and Psychotria genera, along with the targeted LC-MS metabolite profiling, as well as identification of the main metabolites in the bioactive extracts.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Antibiotic resistance is a serious global threat to public health. This has promoted the research for new drug targets, and the use of other approaches, such as antimicrobial combined therapy. The present study evaluated the antibacterial activity of 88 extracts from Brazilian Atlantic Forest trees.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The hexane and ethanol extracts from (Apocynaceae) stems were evaluated for antiviral activity against Zika virus, yellow fever virus and dengue virus 2 and for cytotoxicity in Vero cells by MTT assay. The ethanol extract showed good antiviral activity against the three viruses with selective indexes (SI) > 10 and its fractionation led to the isolation of the known plumieride that was active only against Zika virus (SI of 15.97).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A total of 33 extracts of eleven different plants species from Mata Atlântica biome, Brazil, and different fractions of the bioactive extracts were evaluated against chloroquine-resistant W2 strain by LDH method and cytotoxicity to HepG2 cells by the MTT assay, and chemically characterized by LC-DAD-ESI-MS/MS analysis. The results allowed the identification of and as the most active plant species. Different flavonoids and tannins in and besides alkaloids in were identified.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Bioguided fractionation of Xylopia sericea antiplasmodial dichloromethane leaves extract led to the isolation of (-)-7-oxo-ent-kaur-16-en-19-oic acid (C H O ) that was identified by a combination of 1D and 2D NMR experiments (COSY, HMBC, HSQC, HSQC-TOCSY, HSQC-NOESY and NOESY) and by X-ray crystallography. A feature to be pointed out is its (4R) configuration that was inferred from the NOE experiments (HSQC-NOESY and NOESY) and X-ray crystallography. In vitro evaluation of this rare diterpene acid against the chloroquine-resistant strain Plasmodium falciparum W2 by the PfLDH method showed it disclosed a low antiplasmodial activity and was not cytotoxic to HepG2 cells (CC 862.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Ethnopharmacological relevance; Several plant species of Miconia genus are commonly used in Brazilian folk medicine as anti-inflammatory agents and for the treatment of infectious diseases. Infusions and extracts of Miconia species are also reported as analgesic, antimicrobial, antimalarial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antinociceptive, antimutagenic, and antitumoral. Aim of the study; To determine the phytochemical composition of an aqueous extract of Miconia latecrenata leaves and to evaluate its antioxidant, antibacterial, antimutagenic and antigenotoxic activities.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aiming to investigate the antiplasmodial activity and the phytochemical composition of leaves, the essential oil and dichloromethane extract were analyzed by gas and liquid chromatography, respectively, both of them coupled to mass spectrometry, and were evaluated against the chloroquine-resistant strain (W2) and for cytotoxicity to HepG2 cells. Low growth inhibition of as well as low cytotoxicity to HepG2 cells were observed for the essential oil. The leaves dichloromethane extract showed moderate growth inhibition of and low cytotoxicity to HepG2 cells.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: To assess the antiplasmodial activity of the ethanol extract of Xylopia sericea leaves, Annonaceae, often associated with antimalarial use and to perform a bioguided isolation of active compounds.

Methods: Dereplication of ethanol extract by the UPLC-DAD-ESI-MS/MS technique allowed the identification of the major constituents, isolation and identification of alkaloids. The antiplasmodial and cytotoxic activity of the extract, fractions and isolated compounds was evaluated against the chloroquine-resistant W2 strain Plasmodium falciparum and HepG2 cells, respectively.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

is a plant species whose stem bark is used as bitter tonic beverage. The phytochemical analysis, as well as quantification of phenolic constituents and antioxidant activity of ethanolic extracts from stem bark, and leaves were conducted. The extracts were tested for mutagenicity (Ames test) and DNA-damaging activity (Plasmid Cleavage test).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Plant extracts exist as a complex matrix which serves as a source of numerous bioactive metabolites. The ultra performance liquid chromatography with diode-array detection-coupled electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry technique was used to characterize the aqueous extract from leaves of Alchornea glandulosa (EAG), a species popularly used to treat gastrointestinal problems as an antiulcer agent. Quantification of phenolic derivatives was determined using Folin-Ciocalteu and aluminum trichloride (AlCl) methods.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Ocotea odorifera (Vell.) Rohwer is popularly used as food and flavoring. The aim of this study was to determine the chemical composition of the aqueous extract from O.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Coutarea hexandra is a species commonly known in Brazil as quina, and its bark is used in folk medicine. In this study, we assess the mutagenic and DNA-damaging effects of ethanol extracts from C. hexandra stem bark (SCH) and leaves (LCH) by employing the Ames test on the TA98 and TA100 strains of Salmonella typhimurium in addition to a plasmid treatment test.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF