The use of Euterpe oleracea Mart. as a new perspective for disease treatment and prevention
Euterpe oleraceae Mart. oil. Acai. Cyclodextrins. Inclusion complex. Antimicrobial. Antioxidant. Anti Inflammatory.
The Euterpe oleraceae Mart. oil (EOO), known as açaí oil, is commonly used by the food and cosmetics industry. Its composition, of fatty acids, polyphenolics and phytosteroid metabolites, is attributed important biological activities, such as: antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and antiproliferative. However, its use by the pharmaceutical industry is limited by unwanted physicochemical characteristics. Inclusion complexes have been used to increase solubility, stability and biological activities of vegetable oils. Therefore, the objective of the present work was to obtain a physicochemical characterization of inclusion complexes with oil in β-cyclodextrin (EOO-β-CD) and hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (EOO-HP-β-CD) and test them regarding the increase of antimicrobial, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity. Chemical characterization of the EOO was carried out by gas chromatography coupled to a flame ionization detector (CG-FID). The interaction energy between oleic acid and cyclodextrins was determined by molecular dynamics. The complexes were developed by the methods of kneading (KND) and slurry (SL) and characterized by Infrared Spectroscopy with Fourier Transform (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), X-Ray Diffractogram (DR-X), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TG) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). The antibacterial activity was expressed in Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) and modulatory drugs with sub-inhibitory concentration (MIC/8) against Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25932), Enterococcus faecales (ATCC 29212), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27853) and Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922), antioxidant (in vitro) and anti-inflammatory activity by the methods of paw edema and air sac in Swiss mouse. CG-FID presented oleic acid (47.58%) as the main constituent of the oil. Inclusion complexes with β-CD and HP-βCD demonstrated encapsulation efficiency, with a better interaction energy between oleic acid and β-CD (-41.28 ± 0.57 kJ/mol). FTIR showed shifts in wave numbers and a variation in the peak intensity characteristic of cyclodextrin and EOO. The morphological and crystalline characterizations, in SEM and DR-X, showed variations in the shape, appearance and amorphous profile of the complexes in comparison with cyclodextrins alone. TG and DSC analysis showed variations in temperature in mass losses and variations in enthalpy between EOO, cyclodextrins and inclusion complexes, confirming the formation of inclusion complexes. MIC values showed greater antibacterial activity of the complexes compared to the isolated oil. The modulatory response of EOO and EOO-β-CD prepared by KND, as well as of EOO-β-CD and EOO-HP-β-CD prepared by SL showed a synergistic effect to ampicillin against E. coli, although it maintained biological activity of other tested antibiotics. The antioxidant action has been shown to enhance Fe2+ chelating activity when EOO-β-CD (SL) is used, while the OHradical scavenging activity of EOO-HP-β-CD (MX) has shown a synergistic effect between the cyclodextrin and the oil. The edematogenic activity and myeloperoxity indexes, in the paw edema model; and leukocyte index, myeloperoxity, glutathione disulfide, in the air bag model, were decreased, while interleukin-10 was increased in this same model, suggesting that EOO-β-CD enhanced the anti-inflammatory effect exhibited by EOO. The pharmacological responses displayed by the complexes are highly relevant, since it supports studies for the development of new pharmaceutical formulations.