Anacardium othonianum Rizz., popularly known as the Cerrado cashew tree, is widely used in medicine due to its therapeutic properties, including its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antidiarrheal activities. Light is an important regulator of the growth, development of plants differentiation, and metabolism. Considering the influence of light on the production of phytochemicals, the aim of the present study was to evaluate production of gallic and 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acids and amentoflavone in A. othonianum seedlings grown in vitro exposure to white, blue, green, red, and yellow light. The seedlings were evaluated with respect to the length of the aerial parts and the number of leaves, at 0, 20, and 40 days of treatment. The fresh and dry weights of the aerial parts and the levels of phenolic acid and biflavonoid were evaluated at 40 days via high-performance liquid chromatography with a diode array detector (HPLC-DAD). Regardless of the light wavelength used for the growth, the largest length of the aerial parts (5.54 cm) and an increase in the number of leaves (2.86-fold) were observed at 40 days. The largest accumulations of fresh weight (325.5 mg and 335.1 mg per seedling) and dry weight (83.3 mg and 84.5 mg per seedling) were observed in seedlings grown under red and yellow light, respectively. Relatively higher levels of gallic acid (0.66 mg.g -1 dry weight) and amentoflavone (1.41 mg.g -1 dry weight) were found in seedlings grown under blue light. In contrast, the 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid levels of the seedlings under red light increased (8.22 mg.g -1 dry weight).
The antifungal activities of the crude ethanolic extract of Anacardium othonianum (Anacardiaceae) leaves (EE) and the n-hexane (HF), EtOAc (EF), n-BuOH (BF) and hydromethanolic (HMF) fractions were assayed against Candida albicans (ATCC 64548) and Trichophyton rubrum (Tr1). Additionally, the cytotoxicities were also evaluated against normal human lung fibroblasts (GM07492A). The EE yielded minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of 78.12 and 312.50 µg/mL for C. albicans and T. rubrum, respectively, and no cytotoxicity was observed. The EF and BF fractions exhibited enhanced antifungal activities when compared with the MIC values obtained for the EE fraction, and no cytotoxicity was observed for either fraction. Thus, the EF fraction, which displayed the higher antifungal activity, was purified, leading to the isolation of the following compounds: amentoflavone (1), gallic acid (2), protocatechuic acid (3), and ethyl 3,4,5-trimethoxybenzoate (4). HPLC analysis confirmed the presence of compounds 1-4 and 1-3 in the EF and BF fractions, respectively, in different proportions. The results suggest that the antifungal activities of the EE, EF and BF fractions may be attributed mainly to the actions of 1, 2 and 3.
Applying elicitors in plants growing under natural conditions change the metabolic content of volatile compounds extracted from their tissues. Here, we have investigated how abiotic elicitors influence the volatile composition of the ethyl acetate extract of Anacardium othonianum seedlings propagated in vitro and ex-vitro cultures. Abiotic factors such as salicylic acid, silver nitrate, light quality, and cultivation mode affected the composition of volatile compounds in ethyl acetate extract of A. othonianum leaves seedlings. GC/MS analysis demonstrated that α-tocopherol was the main metabolite in cultures added with chemical elicitors, reaching 22.48±4.06% in the case of 30 µM salicylic acid. Higher concentrations of salicylic acid decreased the amount of αtocopherol. The addition of AgNO3 had a linear effect on α-tocopherol. Thus, the production of this metabolite indicates that salicylic acid and AgNO3 elicitors positively affect α-tocopherol production at specific concentrations helping to understand how plant culture can be better manipulated.
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