Influência temporal na constituição mineral de algumas espécies da flora brasileira

Abstract

Many plants are widely used for medicinal purposes, especially in Brazil. The chemical composition of these plants arises from the environmental characteristics under which they are grown. Lately, researches have drawn attention to the inorganic composition evaluation of these matrices, since minerals might present either nutritional or toxic character. Hence, the objective of this work was to obtain the mineral composition in terms of essential and non-essential inorganic constituents for three sampling years of Amazonian species grown in Belém/PA: Cecropia palmata, Cecropia obtusa, Bauhinia variegata L., Bauhinia variegata L. var. alboflava, Mansoa alliacea and Connarus perrottetti var. angustifolius. The analitycal technique used was Atomic Absorption Spectrometry. All species showed essential minerals contents above recommended daily intake, indicating they may act as diet supplements. Sodium was an exception, being present at low concentrations. Therefore, there are no restrictions on the consumption of these plants for people intolerant to those minerals. Moreover, levels of non-essential minerals were not considered toxic. However, mineral contribution of other foods in the daily diet must be considered. Concerning the different years of sampling, it was observed that there is a non-uniform variation on these elements concentrations through time. Considering that such minerals contents are influenced by the environment where they are grown, further studies with the same species cultivated in different regions are recommended.