ISOLATION OF SECONDARY METABOLITES FROM OLEORESIN Copaifera publifora

Purpose: Copaifera is popularly known as “copaibas”, “copaibeiras” or “pau d’oleo”. It has been described with many pharmacological activities, mainly against tumor cells. Copaifera shows cytotoxic properties ( in vitro and in vivo ). In folk medicine, the biological properties are associated to the oleoresin, a balsamic material obtained from the trunk. In this context, the present work aimed the isolation and identification of secondary metabolites from Copaifera pubiflora oleoresin, and to subsequently evaluate the in vitro potential of these metabolites. Methods: For this purpose, the oleoresin was submitted to several chromatographic processes as VLC (vaccum liquid chromatography), CC (classic chromatography), comparative TLC (thin layer chromatography), and HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography), using mixtures of silica gel 60 and 60H as stationary phases and n -hexane/ethyl acetate mixtures as mobile phases. Results: Thereby, the following fractions were obtained and named as OCPub 2.11; OCPub 2.5.50; OCPub 3.5; OCPub 3.8; OCPub 4.3 and OCPub 4.11. Conclusion: These fractions showed a pure chemical profile in HPLC analyses and the isolated metabolites were submitted to H 1 and C 13 RMN. Until this moment, these analyses allowed the identification of hardwickiic acid as the major metabolite of this oleoresin.