Chemical Composition and Evaluation Preliminary of Antileishmanial Activity in vitro of Essential Oil from Leaves of Eugenia pitanga , A Native Species of Southern of Brazil.

Eugenia pitanga(O.Berg) Nied., Myrtaceae, popularly known as pitanga-do-campo, is a species native from Pampa biome, in southern of Brazil and is popularly used as antidiarrheal, anti-rheumatic, stimulant and febrifuge. The aim of this work was to determine the chemical composition of essential oil from fresh leaves ofEugenia pitanga(O.Berg) Nied. Preliminaries data about antileishmanial activityin vitroof essential oil against promastigotes forms ofLeishmania amazonensisare presented. The method to determine the chemical composition of the essential oil from fresh leaves ofE. pitanga(EoEp) was gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. EoEp was assayedin vitrofor antileishmanial activity against promastigotes ofLeishmania amazonensis. The EoEp comprised 57 components and was rich in oxygenated sesquiterpenes (72.97 %) with spathulenol (15.34 %), globulol (10.93 %) and (2E,6E) methyl farnesoate (7.40 %) as the major constituents. EoEp was effective againstL. amazonensispromastigotes with IC50value of 6.10 ± 1.80 μg/mL. This work reports for the first time the composition of essential oil from leaves ofE. pitangafrom Pampa Biome, and it suggests the importance of continuing the studies in order to explain the antileishmanial activity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]