ECOLOGY AND VARIABILITY OF CHEMICAL MEDIATORS FROM Plumbago SPECIES
Selma R. de Paiva1,2,3, Maria Raquel Figueiredo3 and Maria Auxiliadora C. Kaplan1,2,4
1Programa em Biotecnologia Vegetal, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.
2Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.
3Laboratório de Química de Produtos Naturais, Far-Manguinhos, DFF, FIOCRUZ.
4Núcleo de Pesquisas de Produtos Naturais, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.
The genus Plumbago belongs to the family Plumbaginaceae, order Plumbaginales, superorder Malviflorae ( sensu Dahlgren, 1980) and it comprises approximately 25 genera with about 500 species. Many biological activities are assigned to these plants such as bactericide, fungicide and parasiticide. Two species were selected for ecological and chemical studies, Plumbago scandens L. and Plumbago auriculata Lam. (sin. Plumbago capensis Thunb). Both species were collected monthly during one year in the campus of Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro and have the leaf epicuticular waxes extracted in chloroform. P. scandens and P. auriculata showed variation in the epicuticular wax contents during the year of study. P. auriculata presented the wax highest values in July 1997 and May 1998 while P. scandens showed the maximum wax value in May 1998. It has been observed also that the highest epicuticular wax productions happened after the months with higher levels of temperature and rainy weather. The epicuticular wax linear hidrocarbons showed carbon chains from C23 to C35, being C29 and C31 the major representatives of the series. The quantification of condensed tannins for the Plumbago species showed higher production for P. scandens. Both species exhibited relatively great amounts of total phenols, among which plumbagin is the major component.
( November 23, 1999 ) .
Publication Dates
-
Publication in this collection
07 Aug 2000 -
Date of issue
June 2000
