ABSTRACT Amburana cearensis (Allemão) A.C. Sm., Fabaceae, has been widely studied for its medicinal activities. Many neurodegenerative disorders are caused by oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, excitotoxicity induced by glutamate and ultimately cell death. This study describes the chemical profile of the ethanolic, hexane, dichloromethane, and ethyl acetate extracts obtained from seeds of A. cearensis. The objective of this study was to investigate the chemical profile of extracts obtained from seeds of A. cearensis, as well as their cytotoxicity and neuroprotective effects in cultures of neural PC12 cells. Metabolite profile was performed by GC–MS. PC12 cells were treated with increasing concentrations of the extracts (0.01–2000 µg/ml) and the cell viability was analyzed after 24 and 72 h using an MTT test. For the excitotoxicity assay, PC12 cells were pre-treated with glutamate (1 mM) for 6 h and treated with increasing concentrations (0.1–1000 µg/ml) of the extracts. The chromatographic analysis of the extracts detected various compounds with antioxidant properties, with the majority of peaks corresponding to the isoflavone coumarin. Only the hexane extract showed toxicity after 72 h exposure at the highest concentration (1000 µg/ml). By contrast, all extracts increased the cellular viability of PC12 cells against the toxicity caused by glutamate. Therefore, the extracts from the seeds of A. cearensis showed no toxicity and have neuroprotective potential against neuronal damage induced by glutamate, which may be related to their antioxidant properties.

Em Urucuia, norte de Minas Gerais, os conceitos locais de fundamentoe sistema evocam, respectivamente, as semelhanças e as diferenças entre as festas de folia realizadas em um grande circuito festivo. Descrevendo a circulação de devotos por diversas festas, procuro neste artigo analisar os usos narrativos e festivos destas noções para destacar o modo como elas estão relacionadas a processos específicos de produção e contestação de uma experiência sagrada calcada nas ideias de unidade e totalidade. Ao proporem que as festas sejam simultaneamente uma e várias, que sejam permanentes e mutantes, que sirvam às comunidades e aos interesses individuais, os devotos põem em jogo demarcadores rituais capazes de produzir contextualmente a confirmação do poder totalizador e atemporal das folias ao mesmo tempo em que abrem espaço para a sua dissolução.

In Urucuia (Northern Minas Gerais), the local concepts of "fundamento" and "sistema" refer, respectively, to the similarities and differences between the feasts held in a festive circuit. Starting from a description of the movement of devotees from feast to feast, I analyze the narrative and festive uses of these notions in order to highlight how they relate to processes of production and to the contestation of sacred experience grounded on notions of unity and wholeness. According to devotees, the various feasts are at the same time one and several, enduring and changing, serving community and individual interests. They use ritual markers aiming both to confirm the "folias" atemporal totalizing power and to allow its possible dissolution.

A morte do gado nas folias de Urucuia é um processo sacrificial e como tal realiza um duplo movimento de sacralização: de um lado, o boi é envolto por uma aura sagrada que o transforma em propriedade dos santos; de outro, suas carnes oferecidas em banquete comunicam de "cima para baixo" os poderes sagrados associados à entidade religiosa. Neste artigo, estudo os mecanismos responsáveis pela constituição da unidade sacrificial a partir das operações simbólicas ascendentes e descendentes relativas aos bois e à comida festiva. A totalidade do sacrifício se constrói a partir da ideia de carne de gado. Entidade liminar entre o animal vivo e o alimento pronto, ela realiza as mediações entre os planos naturais, sociais e sobrenaturais mobilizados durante os festejos.

The death of the cattle/ox and collective consumption of its meat for at folias of Urucuia, MG, are truly sacrifice processes. As such, these processes perform reciprocal movements of sacred acts. On one hand, the ox donated by devoted people to the ceremonials during the Folias' festivities is surrounded by a sacred aura that turns the ox an ownership of the saints. On the other hand, the ox meat offered on behalf of the saints' is a communication from "Sacred above to people down here" of sacred powers associated with a religious entity to the entire community of devoted people. In this article, I aim to study the mechanisms responsible for formation of the sacrifices units (in this case the ox) of the simbolic operations from "Sacred above to people down in earth" involving the cattle/ox in the festive food. The whole sacrifice is built from the idea of cattle/ox meet. The sacrificed ox meet is the entity mediating the live animal and the food ready to eat, which performs all the necessary mediations between natural, social and supernatural aspects taking place during the festivities.