Chemical Study, Antioxidant and Cytotoxic Activities of Oil Seeds of Spondias tuberosa (Anacardiaceae)

Abstract

Spondias tuberosa Arr. Cam (Anacardiaceae) is a tree which fruits are popularly known as “umbu”. The crude methanolic extract of S. tuberosa was subjected to a solvent partition, obtaining different organic soluble portions. Chloroform and ethyl acetate soluble fractions proved to be moderately toxic in lethality test compared to Artemia salina. Regarding antioxidant activity, the ethyl acetate fraction proved to be the most active. From the crude hexane extract, a mixture of triglycerides was obtained and, from the chloroform fraction, mixture of free fatty acids and sitosterol and stigmasterol were obtained. From ethyl acetate fraction’s chromatographic procedures, 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfuraldehyde was isolated.