The indiscriminate use of medicinal plants comes from the belief that natural products don't cause harm to health, but as well as synthetic drugs, plants have groups of pharmacologically active compounds that act in living organisms, with the necessary knowledge of these groups to evaluate the therapeutic and toxic potential. Studies of chemical properties of medicinal plants, involving the toxicfarmacologics activities of these extracts are hardly found. This study aimed to analyze the action of essential oil of B. trimera (Less.) DC., a species belonging to the Asteraceae family and popularly known as carqueja, on cultured cells of central nervous system. We used retinal cells from newborn rats treated by carqueja's oil, with concentrations 1:1000 and 1:500, for an incubation period of 4, 24 and 48 hours. Our results showed that carqueja has inhibitory action on the differentiation of neuronal cells in vitro when treated chronically. We also observed a reduction in survival of neuronal cells and decreased proliferation of glial cells. This reduction of the proliferation of glial cells could be interfering with the survival and neuronal differentiation. Further studies are needed to understand the mechanisms involved in this effect.
Carqueja; essencial oil; cell culture; Baccharis trimera
