Avaliação da atividade biológica do extrato bruto da folha da guazuma ulmifolia (Mutamba)

Abstract

The use of medicinal plants is one of the oldest resources used for the treatment of human diseases, and much of what is known about its use comes through popular wisdom. Guazuma ulmifolia Lam. a common species in the Brazilian cerrado, is an example of a plant used for medicinal purposes. The objective of this study was to investigate the possible toxic effects of the crude ethanolic extract of Guazuma ulmifolia leaf. It was also carried out a survey of its main pharmacological and toxicological effects found in the literature. This was done by systematically reviewing PUBMED databases, Science Direct, Latin American and Caribbean Literature in Health Sciences - LILACS and Google Scholar from September to October 2017, for this we used the descriptors: "Guazuma ulmifolia and toxicity" Guazuma ulmifolia and bioactivity" and "Guazuma ulmifolia and pharmacognosy "in the Portuguese and English languages, limited between the years 2010 and 2017. The results showed that G. ulmifolia presents, in addition to popular reports of use, a series of studies that can subsidize and justify its therapeutic use, as well as promising source of new compounds of pharmacological interest. The study of the possible toxic effects of Guazuma ulmifolia was conducted at the Laboratory of Basic Health Sciences of the Federal University of Tocantins. The extract preparation leaves were collected in the municipality of Palmas-TO, in five different locations, where the crude extract of the plant was extracted using ethanol and water, in the proportion of 1:10. The results of the phytochemical tests show that the ethanolic extract of Guazuma ulmifolia revealed the presence of tannins, saponins and organic acids, which are active compounds of medicinal importance. The toxicological bioassay with Artemia salina, using Meyer's methodology (1982), shows that Guazuma ulmifolia is not toxic.