Use of aromatic and medicinal plants, drugs and herbal products in Bragança city

Herbal therapy is characterized by the use of aromatic and medicinal plants (AMP) in different pharmaceutical forms for therapeutic purposes. The present study aims to characterize the use of AMP, drugs and herbal products in Bragança city. For this, a cross-sectional study was conducted through application of a questionnaire to 404 subjects of both gender and aged between 18 and 89 years. AMP were therapeutically used by 53.7% mainly due “to be natural” (43.9%) while 33.8% use drugs and/ or herbal products mainly “because it is good for health” (53.5%). The AMP most used were Cidreira (n=149) and Camomila (n=117) and concerning drugs and/ or herbal products Valdispert® (n=48) and Daflon® 500 (n=41) were the most reported. Overall, the reported uses of AMP, drugs and herbal products were correct, according to the reported in literature. The use of AMP is motivated by self-knowledge (55.4%) while drugs and/ or herbal products are used mostly by medical prescription (44.1%). AMP were obtained by own cultivation (44.1%) and drug and/ or herbal products in pharmacies (89.0%). Of all users, about 90% not combined these products with conventional drugs and it was identified just one potential occurrence of drug interactions related with the use of Hipericão. The occurrence of adverse effects was noted after the use of AMP Sene (11.8%), Hipericão (9.1%) and Ginkgo Biloba (8.3%). The use of these products is a common practice among the residents of Bragança city, which use a wide diversity of AMP and plant-based products.

Antioxidant profile of Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni cultivated in Portugal and submitted to different conservation conditions

The demand for natural sweeteners has been gaining more and more importance due to the great controversy associated with the use of some synthetic sweeteners as cyclamates, aspartame and acesulfame-K. The steviol glycosides (E 960) are a group of natural sweeteners of generalized use; these compounds are obtained from Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni, a sweet plant native from South America (Carocho et al., 2015). However, Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni may have other uses to be exploited, in particular due to its antioxidant capacity. This plant is already produced in Portugal but it is important to evaluate if the plant chemical composition is maintained regardless of culture conditions. Therefore, in this study, stevia samples were cultivated in Braganca (northeastern of Portugal) in a field trial with defined culture conditions. After harvesting, the plants were submitted to two different treatments: kept fresh by freezing (-20°C) and oven-dried (30°C). The antioxidant profile of the samples was studied through evaluation of free radicals scavenging activity, reducing power, phenolic compounds (HPLC-DAD-ESI/MS), tocopherols (HPLC-fluorescence) and free sugars (HPLC-RI). Significant differences were observed: while oven-dried samples showed the highest antioxidant activity and phenolic compounds concentration (mainly 5-O-caffeoylquinic acid and 3,5-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid), the frozen fresh samples had the highest values of total tocopherols and total sugars. These results confirm that the plants grown in Bragança have excellent bioactive secondary metabolites responsible for the observed antioxidant capacity.

Antiangiogenic potential of yogurts added with extracts rich in apigenin derivatives

Angiogenesis is a biological process through which there is the formation of new blood vessels from preexisting ones [I]. However, in pathological cases, the abnormal growth of new blood vessels promotes the development of various diseases including cancer [2) through the production of atypically large amounts of angiogenesis factors, e.g. the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) [3]. The plant secondary metabolites have been the subject of several studies to evaluate their benefits to human health. In particular, the phenolic compounds have high potential for use in the food industry, including the development of functional foods. Among these, apigenin has been associated with chemopreventive effects related to cancer [4]. In fact, chemoprevention is a present-day concept and contemplates the use of medicines, biological compounds or nutrients as an intervention strategy of cancer prevention. In this work, an Arenaria montana L hydroethanolic extract was prepared and after characterization by HPLC-DAD-ESI/MS showed to be rich in apigenin derivatives. Furthermore, it exhibited ability to inhibit the phosphorylation of VEGFR-2 (vascular endothelium growth factor receptor) through an enzymatic assay. However, for the major protection of bioactive compounds, the extract was microencapsulated by an atomization/coagulation technique with alginate as the matrix material. Posteriorly, the hydroethanolic extract, in free and microencapsulated forms, was incorporated in yogurts in order to develop a novel chemopreventer food in relation to the angiogenesis process. The functionalized yogurts with A. montana extracts (free and microencapsulated) showed a nutritional value similar to the used control (yogurt without extract); however, the samples enriched with extracts revealed added-value regarding the VEGFR-2 phosphorylation inhibition ability. This effect was more effectively preserved over time in the samples functionalized with the protected extract. Overall, this work contributes to the valorization of plants rich in flavonoids, exploring its antiangiogenic potential with VEGFR-2 as target. Moreover, the atomization/coagulation technique allowed the production of viable microspheres enriched with the plant extract. The microspheres were effectively incorporated into yogurts, protecting the extract thus envisaging the development of novel functional foods with chemopreventive effects.