The jatobá species, also known as Brazilian cherry, are traditionally used for the treatment of various diseases. Chemotaxonomic studies have described the Hymenaea genus as a potential source of phenolic compounds, tannins and flavonoids, which have antioxidant activity, thus being potential inhibitors of tyrosinase, which is the enzyme responsible for skin pigmentation defects. There are approximately 15 species in the genus Hymenaea of which 13 are found in Brazil. This study was conducted to evaluate the phenols, the antioxidant activity, the ability to chelate copper ions and the ability to inhibit tyrosinase of the extract of the H. Stigonocarpa leaves. The plant material (leaves) was harvested from trees in the savannah (Brazilian Cerrado) area of environmental preservation of the FESURV campus - University of Rio Verde - state of Goiás, dried in a forced circulation oven at 42° C for 2 days and subjected to extraction with hexane (hexane crude extract) and extraction with absolute ethanol (ethanol crude extract). When determining the phenolic content performed with the Folin-Ciocalteu reagent, we found that the crude ethanol extract (CEE) presented the highest concentration (235.7 mg gallic acid equivalent per gram of CEE). In the evaluation of radical scavenging activity, using the DPPH free radical, the ethanol extract again showed higher antioxidant activity (IC50 = 19 ± 0.1 ppm). For the procedure for chelation of copper ions, the crude ethanol extract tested showed no such ability. For the process of inhibiting the tyrosinase enzyme, the crude ethanol extract tested after 30 and 60 minutes presented inhibition of 38 and 48%, respectively.
H. stigonocarpa; phenolic compounds; antioxidants; free radical; ROS
