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α-pinene; medicinal plants; minimum inhibitory concentration; bactericidal activity; cytotoxic activity.
Nowadays, studies in the field of medicinal chemistry have been intensifying in order to elucidate new phytopharmaceuticals, either by obtaining extracts, fractions, isolated compounds or essential oils that present some type of biological activity. In this context, the aroeira-do-sertão (Myracrodruon urundeuva), of the family Anacardiaceae, already studied regarding the antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and cicatrizant potential stands out. Motivated by new therapeutic alternatives, considering the growing microbial resistance, this study evaluated the antimicrobial activity of natural products obtained from the leaves of said plant. Among these is an essential oil, which was extracted by hydrodistillation, characterized by NMR and GC-MS, and evaluated for cytotoxicity; In addition, organic extracts, which were only analyzed for antimicrobial activity: lyophilized methanolic obtained by decoction; Chloroform and ethyl acetate, extracted at room temperature with their respective solvents and filtered under reduced pressure. The antibacterial activity was evaluated by the microdilution technique in broth, in which the MICs were determined using CTT (2,3,5-triphenyl-tetrazolium chloride) as a bacterial growth promoter, and the CBMs were analyzed by growth analysis of the contents of wells on BHI agar. The cytotoxicity of the oil was evaluated by the MTT method, 3- (4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl) -2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide. The oil, in the chemical characterization, among the terpenes identified, had as main constituent the α-pinene (87,85%). In addition, this oil showed antibacterial activity against all strains tested, where for some of these, equivalence between MIC and MBC values, which were 0,22 mg/ml for Staphylococcus aureus, 0,44 mg/ml for Salmonella Enteritidis and 7 mg/ml for Pseudomonas aeruginosa. For Staphylococcus epidermidis the MIC was 0,11 mg/ml and the MBC was 0,22 mg/ml. Escherichia coli was inhibited with MIC of 0,88 mg/ml and MBC of 1,75 mg/ml. Equivalence between MIC and MBC was observed for methanolic extract against S. epidermidis (9,75 mg/ml). For S. aureus, the MIC of this extract was 9,75 mg/ml and the MBC 78 mg/ml. They were resistant to such extract: E. coli, S. Enteritidis and P. aeruginosa. Chloroform and ethyl acetate extracts were bacteriostatic against the five strains, but chloroform inhibited them all with MICs of 15 mg/ml, while ethyl acetate had MICs of 7,56 mg/ml for S. aureus, 1,89 mg/ml for S. epidermidis, 15,12 mg/ml for S. Enteritidis and 30,25 mg/ml for E. coli and P. aeruginosa. As for cytotoxicity, the essential oil compromised the cell viability of the Vero E6 line, only at the highest concentration, 4,4 mg/mL, inhibiting about 93,91% in 24h and 94,26% in 48h. In HeLa cells, in 24h the oil at the same dose had inhibition of 21%, which after 48h increased to 44,3%, showing a possible antitumor action. For the non-tumor cell line HEK-293, the oil had no toxic effect on them. It is concluded that the results are promising, opening future prospects for M. urundeuva leaf products to be pharmacologically viable.