Chemical compounds from species of Croton native to South Brazil

Miriam Anders Apel; Sita Luvangadio Lukoki  Vunda; Sérgio Augusto de Loreto  Bordignon; Eduardo Cassel; Rubem Mário F.  Vargas; Gilsane Lino  von Poser

doi:10.22456/2527-2616.149268

Authors

Miriam Anders Apel Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Farmacêuticas - Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1288-2293
Sita Luvangadio Lukoki Vunda Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Farmacêuticas - Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul https://orcid.org/0009-0002-4039-5900
Sérgio Augusto de Loreto Bordignon Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Farmacêuticas - Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5041-1148
Eduardo Cassel PGETEMA, Faculdade de Engenharia - Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8843-0694
Rubem Mário F. Vargas PGETEMA, Faculdade de Engenharia - Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2696-8581
Gilsane Lino von Poser Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Farmacêuticas - Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2527-7500

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22456/2527-2616.149268

Keywords:

Croton, Euphorbiaceae, essential oil, hydrodistillation, supercritical CO2

Abstract

Five species of Croton were investigated for the essential oil obtained by hydrodistillation from aerial parts of the plants and analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. The essential oil yields from fresh weight ranged from 0.01% to 1%. The essential oil of C. hilarii Baill. exhibited the lowest yield (0.01%). Following this, C. pycnocephalus Müll.Arg. oil yielded 0.1%, while C. gnaphalii Baill. achieved 0.2%. Conversely, C. calycireduplicatus Allem and C. cuchillae-nigrae Croizat afforded the highest yields, both reaching 1%. The essential oils from the latter two species were rich in monoterpenes (52.5% and 59.9%, respectively), being β-pinene the prevalent compound (32.8% and 40.1%, respectively). In contrast, the essential oils from C. pycnocephalus and C. gnaphalii were characterized by a substantial content of sesquiterpenes (85.7% and 79.1%, respectively), being bicyclogermacrene (26.4% and 31%) the predominant component. The C. hilarii essential oil presented only sesquiterpene in its composition, among which sesquicineole (19.90%) and epi-α-bisabolol (16.4%) were the most abundant. The species with high amount of essential oil (C. calycireduplicatus and C. cuchillae-nigrae) were subjected to supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) at a temperature of 40 °C and different pressions. The fractions were analyzed by GC-MS. The SFE demonstrated pressure-dependent selectivity for compound classes. At 80 bar, sesquiterpenes were predominantly obtained. Increasing pressure led to the progressive disappearance of lower molecular weight terpenes and extraction of triterpenes (e.g., amyrins), and hydrocarbons at higher pressures. Nevertheless, SFE yields were generally low, indicating the conditions used were not optimal for the plants in study.

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