Estudo fitoquímico e atividade antimicrobiana de Pilosocereus pachycladus F. RITTER (CACTACEAE)

Abstract

The Genus Pilosocereus belonging to the Cactaceae family stands out for having the highest number of species, being 35 species distributed from Mexico to Paraguay, being Brazil the country with the greatest number of species distributed among different environments, including caatingas, salt marshes and rocky fields. The species Pilosocereus pachycladus F.RITTER, popularly known as "Facheiro" is used in folk medicine against prostate inflammation. The pioneer phytochemical study of this specie led to the isolation and identification of twelve substances which are: an alcohol (decanol), two fatty acids (palmitic acid and Pp-8b), two porphyrinic substances (Phaeophytin a and Phaeophytin a hydroxylated), five steroids (β -sitosterol, stigmasterol, ergosterol, glycosylated β-sitosterol and glycosylated stigmasterol), a phenolic aldehyde (syringaldehyde) and a phenolic acid (p-hydroxyphenylacetic acid); two substances are unprecedented in Cactaceae family and nine new in Pilosocereus genre. An microbiological assessment of specie Pilosocereus pachycladus against strains of bacteria and fungi showed no antimicrobial activity directly but a complementary study for inhibition of efflux pump found that this specie may act as a source of natural products that modulate multidrug resistance in bacteria and substance identified as syringaldehyde (Pp-6) can served as a promising molecule to enhance the antibiotic activity against the efflux pump.