Chlorogenic acids and related compounds ... Chlorogenic acids and related compounds in medicinal plants and infusions Viviane Marques, Adriana Farah

Chlorogenic acids and related compounds in medicinal plants and infusions Viviane Marques, Adriana Farah

abstract ：The consumption of plant infusions for prevention and treatment of health disorders is a worldwide practise.Various pharmacological activities inher ent to medicinal plants have been attributed to their phenolic composition, including chlorogenic acids (CGA). Studies have shown potential beneficial properties of CGA to humans such as antioxidant, hepatoprotective, hypoglyc aemic. In the present study, the CGA composition of 14 dried medicinal plants was determined by HPLC-UV and LC-DAD-ESI-MS. The plants with the highest CGA contents were Ilex paraguariensis, Bacharis genistelloides, Pimpinella anisum, Achyrochine satureioides, Camellia sinensis, Melissa officinalis and Cymbopogon citratus, with 84.7mg/100g-9.7g/100g dry weight.Plant infuse ions were prepared (at 0.5%) in order to evaluate the actual consumption of CGA through these beverages. Total CGA contents in the infusions were similar to those in the methanolic extracts and indicated that a satisfactory extrac tion occurs during the preparation of infusions. These CGA-rich plants dese rve attention regarding the pharmacological properties attributed to CGA.
Keywords：Chlorogenic acidMedicinal plantsIlex paraguariensisBacharis genistelloidesAchyrochine satureioidesCamellia sinensis.

    For centuries, plants have been widely used as food and for medicinal purposes in both Western and Eastern cultures. In the last few years, interest in plant medicines has increased worldwide.Because of the immense flora existing all over the world along with cultural aspects, the use of plants in the form of crude extracts, infusions or plasters has been revived as a usual practice to treat common infections. The World Health Organization estimates that about 80% of the developing countries inhabitants rely on the traditional medicine for their primary health care needs,and that most of these therapies involve the use of plant extracts or their active components. Not only in developing countries but all over the world the use of medicinal plants has been playing a significant role in maintaining human health and
improving the quality of human life. For example, teas made from the leaves of Camellia sinensis have been for centuries commonly consumed all over the world. Recently, epidemiological and preclinical studies have indicated that drinking green and black teas may lower the risk of development of cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Additional beneficial effects of tea drinking such as anti-inflammatory and anti-obesity have also been reported.
    Various beneficial health properties inherent to C. sinensis and other plants have been attributed to their phenolic composition. Phenolic comp ounds occur in nature as mixtures of esters, ethers, or free acids. A major class of phenoliccompounds is the hydroxycinnamic acids, which are found in almost every existing plant. Caffeic, ferulic and p-coumaric acids are trans-cinnamic acids that occur naturally in their free forms or as a family of mono or diesters with-quinic acid, collectively known as chlorogenic acids (CGA).CGA are antioxidant components produced by plants in response to environmental stress conditions such as infections by microbial pathogens, mechanical wounding, and excessive UV or visible light levels.The main classes of CGA found in nature are the caffeoylquinic acids (CQA), dicaffeoyl quinic acids (diCQA),and, less commonly, feruloylquinic acids (FQAs), each group with at least three isomers. Potentially beneficial properties to humans such as antioxidant,hypoglycaemic, antiviral and hepatoprotective activities have been also attributed to CGA in in vitro, in vivo and epidem iological studies. Their lactones (CGL),which are formed during heating by dehydration from the quinic acid moiety and formation of an intramolecular ester bond have also shown biological effects such as inhibition of adenosine transport and affinity with l-opioide receptor, and hypoglycaemic activity.
    Despite CGA potentially beneficial effects in humans, data on their content and distribution in plants, foods and beverages is scarce. Moreover, most of the existing data either include CGA within total phenolic contents or just measure the content of 5-CQA, which is the most abundant CGA in nature. Additionally, the variety of methods employed for CGA analysis increases the difficulty of data comparison in the literature. In this study, medicinal plants commonly consumed in South America were selected according to their popular use and their CGA composition was determined. Subsequently, in order to evaluate the actual consumption of CGA and related compounds through plant infusions, homemade-type infusions were prepared with the evaluated plants carrying the highest CGA content.