The aim of this study was to characterize the polyphenolic profile from the methanolic extracts of C. obtusifolia, C. peltata, C. insignis and C. hispidissima leaves collected in the Republic of Panama, using a method of high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection- quadrupole time of flight-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-DAD-QTOF) method (Fig. 1). Forty-seven compounds comprising two phenolic acids, thirty-three flavonoids, three flavonolignans and nine saponins were identified or tentatively characterized. Thirty nine of these compounds have not been previously reported in these species. A diverse composition of flavone mono-C-glycosides and di-C,O-glycosides were detected in C. obtusifolia, C. peltata and C. insignis. In contrast, quercetin mono- and di-O-glycosides were mainly found in C. hispidissima samples. Therefore, the reported results showed that it is possible to discriminate between C. hispidissima samples from the remaining species under study.
Considering the importance of the description of novel chemical entities and the increasing interest and use of natural products, this study may be of great help for the interpretation of medicinal properties and for the quality assessment of herbal supplements containing Cecropia species leaves.
References
[1] Franco-Rosselli P, Berg C. Caldasia 1997; 19, 285–296.
[2] Costa GM, Schenkel EP, Reginatto FH. Nat Prod Comun 2011; 6, 913–920.