Flavonoides presentes en especies de Psidium (MYRTACEAE) de Venezuela Flavonoids extracted from Psidium species (MYRTACEAE) in Venezuela

Studies based on the identification of flavonoids represent important tools to get useful traits in taxonomic analyses. The genus Psidium in Venezuela has not received attention in this aspect, even though it is one of the best represented genus of the Myrtaceae family. Therefore, is considered necessary to extract and determine the flavonoids present in different Psidium species reported in Venezuela, it is also considered that this kind of phytochemical information along with the morphological characters will help to understand the systematic relationships of the species within this genus. Leaves of Psidium acutangulum, P. guajava, P. guineense, P. maribense, P. salutare, P. sartorianum and Calycolpus moritzianus were collected from different localities in Venezuela and they were processed via acid hydrolysis of flavonoids using HPLC method. The following flavonoids were extracted from the samples: Miricetin, Luteolin, Quercetin, Apigenin and Kaempferol. The resulting data for all the species was analyzed by multivariate statistical methods of Clustering Procedures and Principal Components analysis. The analysis showed 5 clusters, where the species of Psidium and C. moritzianus got distributed according to the presence and concentration of kaempferol, miricetina and luteonina. The different sampling locations of the samples could have been an important factor of variation and is recommended to consider this aspect in future researches. The information obtained from this research will be complemented with morphological traits in order to contribute with the generic limits of Psidium.