The Maytenus ilicifolia (espinheira-santa) is a popular medicinal plant with different uses. It is native of South America and can be found in Brazil. In the Brazilian market it is possible found products labeled as M. ilicifolia. So far, the studies published in the literature involve the modification of the natural materials and do not concern the comparison between commercial the raw natural materials. Different non-destructive NMR techniques can be used to study natural materials. In this work it is presented a characterization study by Fast Field Cycling of the ¹H spin-lattice relaxation time (T1) NMR, in the frequency range 100 kHz-10 MHz. The results obtained in two commercial M. ilicifolia samples and one control sample collected in natura are compared. It was intended to study the possibility to elaborate a characterization method using FFCNMR suitable for the verification of authenticity and/or evaluation of tampering on products. The differences detected by FFCNMR relaxometry were confirmed by thermogravimetric analysis and infrared spectroscopy.
Characterization; NMR; polysaccharides
