Capacidade antioxidante de Eugenia uniflora L. (Pintangueira) em resposta ao ambiente de mineração de calcário

Abstract

Environmental conditions can influence the composition and production of secondary metabolites, causing greater or lesser antioxidant capacity in plants. In mining areas there are changes in the environment, which may interfere with the constituents of the plant. In this work, the antioxidant activity of the Eugenia uniflora L. ethanolic extract present in a mining area with a control area was compared, as well as investigations of the condition of the environment. The antioxidant activity was analyzed by two methods: phosphomolybdenum complexation and the free radical sequestration method DPPH ° (2,2-diphenyl1-picryl-hydrazyl). In order to verify the quality of the soils where the plants were, the pH was verified and the presence of some chemical elements was investigated. In the mining region there was no detection of some elements that are essential for plant nutrition: copper, molybdenum, nickel and zinc, as well as a lower concentration of cobalt, which is also considered an essential element. The determination of the pH of the soils allowed to define the soil of the mining area as basic (8.85 ± 0.78), while that of the control area was characterized as acid (5.37 ± 0.35). The high pH value in the mining area is a factor that causes more impacts on plant nutrition than the soil acidity of the control area, because the availability of nutrients is affected to a greater extent. The water analysis indicated that the water quality in the control area is adequate, while in the mining area the hardness, conductivity, calcium and magnesium levels were high because it was a sedimentation basin of liquid effluents from the lime factory . The antioxidant activity of the plant located in the mining area was higher than that of the control area, which is not under the influence of mining activities. In the phosphomolybdenum complex method, the statistical analysis showed that between the extracts of Eugenia uniflora L. of the two analyzed areas there is no significant difference. In the free radical sequestration method (DPPH) there was a significant difference between the different extracts. The highest percentage of antioxidant activity observed was 96.55% for the extract from the mining area, while for the control area it was 92.78%. Some factors can cause stress in the plant species, promoting an increase in the antioxidant compounds, which aspect may be related to the increase of pH levels in the soil of the mining area, as well as the absence or deficiency of elements that are essential for plant nutrition .