Gallesia integrifolia (Phytolaccaceae) is native to Brazil and has a strong alliaceous odor. The objective of this study was to identify the chemical composition of G. integrifolia fruit essential oil and evaluate fungicidal activity against the main food-borne diseases and food spoilage fungi. The essential oil was extracted by hydrodistillation and identified by GC-MS. From 35 identified compounds, 68% belonged to the organosulfur class. The major compounds were dimethyl trisulfide (15.49%), 2,8-dithianonane (52.63%) and lenthionine (14.69%). The utilized fungi were Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus ochraceus, Aspergillus versicolor, Penicillium funiculosum, Penicillium ochrochloron, Penicillium verrucosum var. cyclopium, and Trichoderma viride. Minimal fungicidal concentration for the essential oil varied from 0.02 to 0.18mg/mL and bifonazole and ketoconazole controls ranged from 0.20 to 3.50mg/mL. The lower concentration of the essential oil was able to control P. ochrochloron, A. fumigatus, A. versicolor, A. ochraceus and T. viride. This study shows a high fungicidal activity of G. integrifolia fruit essential oil and can support future applications by reducing the use of synthetic fungicides.

Tetradenia riparia (Lamiaceae) is native to Central Africa popularly known as myrrh, used in folk medicine to treat various diseases like malaria, gastroenteritis, and tropical skin disease. This research was to evaluate the antioxidant and antibacterial activities of the crude extract (CE) and fractions (FR) of the T. riparia by classical chromatography. The CE of T. riparia leaves was submitted to column chromatographic fractionation to obtain four fractions of the interest, which were identified by nuclear magnetic resonance and gas chromatograph coupled to mass spectrum: FR-I (abieta-7,9(11)-dien-13-β-ol), FR-II (Ibozol), FR-III (8 (14), 15-sandaracopimaradiene-2α, 18-diol and 8 (14), 15-sandaracopimaradiene-7α, 18-diol), and FR-IV (Astragalin, Boronolide and Luteolin). Total phenol content of CE and FR were measured, and antioxidant action by methods of DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl), β-carotene/linoleic acid system, and ferric reducing/antioxidant power (FRAP) and the antibacterial activity was evaluated by the broth microdilution method with the determination of the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). The FR-IV presented antioxidant potential with 181.67 μg gallic acid/mg, IC of 0.61 μg/mL by DPPH method, 55.61% oxidation protection by β-carotene/linoleic acid system and 4.59 µM ferrous sulfate/mg of sample by FRAP, and the FR-I showed higher antibacterial potential on the strain Staphylococcus aureus with MIC 0.98 μg/mL, Enterococcus faecalis and Bacillus cereus with MIC 31.2 μg/mL. Thus, the fractionation of CE was extremely important to detect fractions with potential activities, and investigations are necessary regarding the mechanism of action and action in vivo.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the acaricidal and larvicidal activities of essential oil (EO) from fruits, leaves and flowers of garlic wood on cattle tick [Rhipichephalus (Boophilus) microplus]. The fruits were harvested from May to June (2015) and the leaves and flowers in December (2015). The EO was obtained by hydrodistillation (2h) and identified by GC/MS. Bioassays consisted of Adult Immersion Test and Larval Immersion Test. The results made the following major compounds evident: 2,3,5-trithiahexane (35.29%) in fruits, dimethyl sulfide (42.42%) in leaves and methanethiol (44.91%) in flowers. The EOs from fruits, leaves and flowers showed high activity on the tick larval cycle, presenting LD 99.9 of (0.23 ± 0.01 mg/mL), (2.15 ± 0.11 mg/mL) and (0.08 ± 0.00 mg/mL), respectively. However, when we compared different phases of cattle tick's live cycle, EO from fruits was more active on females' mortality, and EO from leaves was more efficient on the egg hatching inhibition, whereas EO from flowers presented better results on bovine tick larva. Thus, garlic wood (Gallesia integrifolia), a native plant of the Atlantic forest can be considered as a promising natural agent to control bovine tick.

Investigation of the antibacterial action of aqueous extracts of Bidens sulphurea, Bidens pilosa, and Tanacetum vulgare, species of Asteraceae family that are popularly used for the treatment of genito-urinary infection. Methods The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimal bacterial concentration (MBC) of the extracts against standard strains of Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC25923), Enterococcus faecalis (ATCC29212), Escherichia coli (ATCC25922), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC27853) and against bacteria that were isolated from cultures of vaginal secretions and urine from menopausal women with a diagnosis of recurrent urinary tract infections (rUTI) were determined by broth microdilution. Results The MIC values of the three extracts against Gram-positive and Gram-negative standard bacterial strains ranged from 7.81 to 125.00 mg ml-1 , and the MBC values ranged from 7.81 to 500.00 mg ml-1. However, B. sulphurea was more efficient. In the urine samples, the three extracts inhibited the growth of coagulase-negative Staphylococcus spp., and the B.

Baccharis dracunculifolia, native to Brazil and the main source of “green propolis”, has been reported with several biological activities, and may be a source of bovine tick control substituting synthetic acaricides. Objective: to evaluate the in vitro and ex situ acaricidal activity of B. dracunculifolia leaf and flower essential oils against Rhipicephalus microplus. Methodology: the essential oils were extracted by hydrodistillation and analyzed by a gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry; the acaricidal activity of the essential oil was evaluated in vitro against adult females and against the egg hatchability; moreover, the acaricidal activity against tick larvae was evaluated in vitro and ex situ. Results: the major class of the essential oils was oxygenated sesquiterpene (55.1% leaves 50.4% flowers) and the main compounds were (21.5% leaves; 20.6% flowers) and spathulenol (21.8% leaves; 20.3% flowers). The essential oil at 500 mg/mL was effective to control egg hatchability with a reduction of egg laying capacity and decrease of number of adult ticks and larvae. The larvicidal activity of the essential oil had LC99.9 from 35 to 37 mg/mL by probit analysis, and the essential oil from 11 to 14 mg/mL presented 85 to 95% of treatment efficiency in the ex situ test. Conclusion: B. dracunculifolia leaf and flower essential oils are stable and have application potential to control bovine ticks.

Myrcianthes pungens (Myrtaceae) is a native tree to Brazil known as guabijú. In our study, we described the chemical composition of the essential oil from M. pungens dried leaves, the antioxidant activity by different methods and antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The chemical identification was done by gas chromatograph coupled to mass spectrometer and antibacterial activity was evaluated by broth microdilution method. The leaf essential oil presented hydrocarbon sesquiterpenes (42.6%) as its main chemical class whose major compounds were β-caryophyllene (11.7%) and 1,8-cineole (10.1%). The best antioxidant protection was from 57.5 to 63.3% of β-carotene. The highest antibacterial activity was against S. aureus (MIC of 78.12 µg/mL). This value was 2.56-fold lower than the positive streptomycin control. M. pungens is a promising source of natural molecules with potential study for the development of pharmacological, cosmetic and food products.

Tradescantia pallida is an herbaceous plant with promising results in the health area. However, further studies on this plant are needed in order to characterize it phytochemically, pharmacologically and toxicologically. In this sense, the present study aimed to verify the unprecedented identification of its essential oil components. The essential oil extraction of T. pallida aerial parts was performed by hydrodistillation in a Clevenger apparatus (5h), and the chemical analysis by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The oxygenated sesquiterpenes was the dominant class in essential oil composition and spathulenol (19.56%) was the principal identified compound, followed by caryophyllene oxide (18.84%), β-caryophyllene (13.65%) and α-copaene (6.08%). The identification of these sesquiterpene compounds (oxygenated and hydrocarbons) contributes to the understanding of the biological activities evidenced by T. pallida in previous literature.

Several technologies have been developed to control Aedes aegypti, mainly studies on isolated plant molecules. The Schinus terebinthifolius (Raddi) (Anacardiaceae), popularly known as pink pepper is a plant widely used in reforestation of degraded areas and its fruits are used as condiments. The objective of this work was to investigate the potential of essential oils (EOs) and fractions (FRs) obtained from fresh fruits and leaves of S. terebinthifolius. The EOs were obtained by hydrodistillation (2 hours), fractionated on a chromatographic column using as the stationary phase silica gel 60 (0.063-0.2mm), mobile phases: n-hexane, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate and methanol and chemically evaluated by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometer (GC/MS). EOs and FRs were tested against larvae of the third stage and pupae of  Ae. aegypti by Immersion Test at concentrations ranging from 500.00 to 0.003 mg mL-1 (v/v). The hexane FRs obtained from fruits and leaves were the ones that showed the greatest activity on the larvae (LC99.9= 0.60 mg mL-1 and LC99.9 0.64 mg mL-1, respectively) and pupae (LC99,9 = 2.51 mg mL-1 and 2.61 mg mL-1, respectively). These results were confirmed by the anticholinesterase activity where the hexane (fruit and leaf) FRs presented the highest inhibitory potential on the acetylcholinesterase enzyme (0.156 mg mL-1 and 0.312 mg mL-1, respectively), suggesting the likely mechanism of action. The larvicidal potential can be explained by the presence of the major compounds bicyclogermacrene and germacrene D in the hexane FRs, indicating in this way that they may replace or even act in synergisms with conventional chemical larvicides. In this way the present study opens the field for new researches, aiming the development of products with the compounds bicyclogermacrene and germacrene D, as an alternative in the control of this culicide.