Comparison of different extraction methods of Brazilian 'pacová' (Renealmia petasites Gagnep.) oilseeds for the determination of lipid and terpene composition, antioxidant capacity, and inhibitory effect on neurodegenerative enzymes

Pacová (Renealmia petasites Gagnep.) is a Brazilian native plant, usually cultivated in south regions of the country. Pacová was previously reported concerning their possible health benefits, mostly from folk medicine. However, only few works relates the health benefits with the composition of the fruit parts. In this context, this work aimed to bring, for the first time in literature, the chemical characterization in respect to lipid and terpene composition of R. petasites oilseed, performed by three different extraction methods (supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) with CO2, Soxhlet with petroleum ether (SOX), and maceration with hexane (MAC)). SFE was most selective for MUFAs, PUFAs, sesqui- and diterpenes. The main terpene identified in all extracts was 2-carene. The extracts presented poor AChE inhibition, and SOX presented potential inhibitory effect against lipoxygenase activity. Overall, R. petasites oilseed is a natural source of terpenes and their potential health benefits are highly encouraged to be investigated.
The authors thank the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), Brazil, for the doctoral scholarship (Process numbers: 2017/11245-5 and 2019/10655-0, and 2017/23670-2), National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) (grant numbers: 408285/20184 and 303063/2018-1) and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, Spain (project AGL2017-89417-R). J.D.S-M. would like to acknowledge the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities for a FPU predoctoral grant FPU17/01876. G.Á.-R. would like to acknowledge the Ministry of Science and Innovation for a “Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación” postdoctoral grant (IJC2019-041482-I). The authors also thank the company Virga Gim do Brasil® for donating the pacová fruits.