%0 Journal Article
%T HPLC-Profiles of Tocopherols, Sugars, and Organic Acids in Three Medicinal Plants Consumed as Infusions
%A Cust¨®dio Lobo Roriz
%A Lillian Barros
%A Ana Maria Carvalho
%A Isabel C. F. R. Ferreira
%J International Journal of Food Science
%D 2014
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2014/241481
%X Pterospartum tridentatum (L.) Willk, Gomphrena globosa L., and Cymbopogon citratus (DC.) Stapf are medicinal plants that require a more detailed chemical characterization, given the importance of their consumption as infusions. Therefore, the individual profiles in tocopherols, free sugars, and organic acids were obtained by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to different detectors (fluorescence, refraction index, and photodiode array, resp.). C. citratus revealed the highest content of ¦Á-, and total tocopherols, glucose, sucrose, succinic, and ascorbic acids. P. tridentatum presented the highest fructose and total sugars content. Otherwise, G. globosa showed the highest organic acids concentration. As far as we know, this is the first study reporting the mentioned chemical compounds in G. globosa and C. citratus. 1. Introduction For a long time, plants represented one of the most important therapies for different diseases. Nowadays, the popular use of plants as a way of treatment is still very important for human beings [1]. Pterospartum tridentatum (L.) Willk, Gomphrena globosa L., and Cymbopogon citratus (DC.) Stapf are examples of those plants that are widely used in folk medicine, mostly as infusions. P. tridentatum (family: Fabaceae) is a European endemic species and its flowers infusion is used against liver, bladder, kidney, and rheumatism problems; it is also used for high blood pressure, cough, kidney stones, diabetes, and bronchitis [1, 2]. G. globosa (family: Amaranthaceae) is native from Panama and Guatemala and its aqueous extract of its purple inflorescences is good to treat bronchial asthma, acute and chronic bronchitis, and whooping cough; the infusion of the flowers is used to treat oliguria and indigestion, also as expectorant and pertussis [3, 4]. C. citratus (family: Poaceae) is native from the Southwest Asia and its aqueous extract (i.e., in the form of infusion) is used for the treatment of several inflammation-based pathologies, in digestive disorders, diabetes, nervous disorders, and fever [5¨C7]. According to Novais et al. [1], the infusion is used as gastric analgesic, intestinal anti-inflammatory, and renal antispasmodic and for gall-bladder ailments, sea-sickness, and bladder ailments. There are several reports about the biological activity of the mentioned plants, especially concerning antioxidant activity [5, 8], that have been related to their phenolic composition [3, 9], but studies regarding the composition on primary metabolites and nutrients are scarce. Moreover, many of the commercially available
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijfs/2014/241481/