Ageratum conyzoides (mentrasto or goat weed) has invaluable socio-economic-cultural importante being used as unconventional vegetable in traditional cuisine of Minas Gerais state, Brazil. In folk medicine it is used as a purgative, febrifuge, antiemetic and against colic, ulcers and uterine problems. The objective of this study was to quantify the concentration of phenolic compounds, flavonoids and antioxidant activity in ethanol extracts of goat weed, as a step towards analytical and bioanalytical validation of its use as aherbal and/or medication as functional food. Thus, analysis of the levels of phenolic, flavonoids and antioxidant activity (AAT %) were made in ethanol extracts of leaves (EF), flowers (EFL) and roots (ER) of goat weed. Measuring phenolic compounds in EF, ER and EFL, was carried out by the Folin-Ciocalteu method. The content of flavonoids in the extracts was determined using vanillin in acid medium. For the antioxidant evaluation we used the methodology of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging method. The experimental design was randomized blocks design, all analyzes being performed with four replications. Data were submitted to analysis of variance and to test at 1% significance. ER had a higher concentration of phenolic compound (23.33 mg/mL), followed by EFL (19.254 mg/mL) and PE (14.722 mg/mL). The highest content of flavonoids was EF (5.726 µg/mL), followed by EFL (5.463 µg/mL) and ER (4.805 µg/mL). The antioxidant activity of EFL (87.62%) was similar to the positive control validating the potential of this species as a functional food and the development of standardized herbal formulation that can be used for preventing of degenerative diseases and cellular aging.
Ageratum conyzoides; unconventional vegetable; functional food; nutraceutics; DPPH.
: Ageratum conyzoides; hortaliça não convencional; alimentos funcionais; nutracêuticos; DPPH.
