Influence of environmental, geographic, and seasonal variations in the chemical composition of Miconia species from Cerrado

Abstract Miconia albicans (Sw.) Triana and Miconia chamissois Naudin, commonly known as “pixirica” and “pixirica-acu”, two Melastomataceae species, are commonly found in Cerrado areas. M. albicans species grows in dry and humid habitats, so it has adapted to both conditions and M. chamissois species grows in humid environment only. In this work, we have investigated the content of triterpenes, flavonols and flavanones in three different Cerrado fragments of Sao Paulo State, involving distinct environments (dry and humid) and seasons (dry and rainy) to comprehend the complex interactions among plants and the seasonal, environmental conditions and geographic locations. The leaves plants materials were harvest in August 2016 (dry season) and November/December 2016 (rainy season) in Pirassununga, Pedregulho and Luiz Antonio in dry and humid environments. The contents of the standards rutin (R), quercetin (Q), miconioside B (B), matteucinol 7-O-β-apiofuranosyl(1 → 6)-β-glucopyranoside (matt), ursolic acid (AU), and oleanolic acid (AO) were determined by HPLC-DAD. The data were analyzed using nonparametric tests, Pearson's linear correlation, principal component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis. The results demonstrated similar flavanone and triterpene production during the dry period, and similar flavonol and flavanone production in the rainy season, thus confirming a seasonal variation in the content of the compounds in the evaluated specimens. Our results also demonstrated intra- and inter-population variations in compounds patterns, M. albicans contained major amounts of the flavonols R and Q; their concentrations were higher in the rainy season. B and matt were the major compounds in M. chamissois; the matt concentration decreased in the rainy season. The triterpenes AU and AO occurred in both M. albicans and M. chamissois, but their production dropped during the rainy periods. Thus corroborating the adaptation of M. albicans and M. chamissonis to the high stress and low levels of resources presented in Cerrado.