QUANTIFICATION OF ALKALOIDS OFLadenbergia oblongifolia(HUMB. EX MUTIS) L. ANDERSSON “QUINA TREE”

Abstract

The megadiversity of Peru, has many species framed in the genus Cinchona, Ladenbergia and Remijia, and that the inhabitants of the Andean-Amazonian Communities know them indistinctly as "quina trees", "quina" or "cascarillas" and which They attribute medicinal properties to them against malaria, broncho-respiratory diseases and especially Covid-19. However, the indiscriminate exploitation and the little interest of the investigation has contributed to the extinction and confusion in the identification of the species in different genera;In view of this, the research objective was to quantify the alkaloids of Ladenbergia oblongifolia "quina tree";in order to promote the revaluation of this species as a promising ethnobotanical resource that seeks to correlate its active principles or secondary metabolites with the consequent pharmacological actions attributed to it. For this, bark and leaves of L. oblongifolia were used, from Chiclin, Chicama, Ascope, La Libertad, Peru;the taxonomic determination was carried out in the Herbarium Truxillense (HUT);while the extraction and quantification of alkaloids in the Laboratory of Instrumental Methods, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Chemical Engineering of the National University of Trujillo. It is concluded that the leaves of L. oblongifolia contain 0.1039 mmol alkaloids/g dry matter, and these metabolites can be extracted directly from the leaves, without the need to cut or destroy the trees, so it is urgent to implement mechanisms of use of the leaves instead of the bark, thus avoiding their extinction.