ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY AND PHENOLIC CONTENT OF EXTRACTS FROM BERRIES OF TWO SPECIES OF VISMIA GENUS (GUTTIFERAE)

Plant material resulting from dried and pulverized berries of Vismia baccifera ssp. ferruginea and V.guianensis collected in the Parque Regional Arvi (Antioquia, Col.), was extracted by successive percolation with ether of petroleum, ethyl acetate and methanol. Yield, total phenolic content and free radical scavenging activity employing the methods of decoloration of the DPPH center dot and ABTS(center dot+) free radicals of these extracts were determined. Ethyl acetate fraction, which was followed by petroleum ether extract, exhibited the highest ABTS and DPPH radical-scavenging activity and total phenolic content. Therefore, ethyl acetate and petroleum ether fractions were subjected to further separation by chromatographic methods. Thus, two prenylated anthranoid (ferruginin A, (1) under bar and gamma-hydroxyferruginin A, (2) under bar) and one anthraquinone (vismiaquinone A, (3) under bar), had been isolated and their structures determined by spectroscopic methods and by comparison with the values reported in literature. The data obtained in the in vitro models clearly establish the antioxidant potency of Vismia bacifera ssp. ferruginea and V. guianensis extracts; this activity may possibly be due to the chemical characteristics of compounds isolated.