Avaliação das atividades toxicológicas e microbiológicas de chás industrializados

Abstract

The use of medicinal plants has always been a constant in the folk medicine of different civilizations around the world. However, their pharmacological activities are still poorly studied. This work aims to study the toxicological and microbiological activity of industrialized teas of Black Tea (Camellia sinensis), chamomile (Matricaria recutita), Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare L.) and spearmint (Mentha piperita) in Swiss albino mice. There were made aqueous and alcoholic extracts of the teas in study. Those who had strong antimicrobial and toxicological activity had their ethanolic extracts fractionated by a method of liquid- liquid partition in a gradient of increasing polarity. Female mice of Swiss albino species were used in toxicity testing. To evaluate the antimicrobial activity of these extracts it was used an Agar diffusion method based on Kirby and Bauer modified method. According to the preliminary analysis of the microbiological profile of these teas could observe the presence of a large number of units According to the preliminary analysis of the microbiological profile of these teas it could be observed the presence of a large number of colony forming units per gram of tea, despite all the teas were maintained within the standards established by law. The toxicological tests carried out with extracts of the teas showed significant results for the extracts of C. sinensis (Black Tea) and M. recutita (Chamomile). With testing of the fractions from ethanolic extracts of C. sinensis and M. recutita it could be observed a hepatotoxic activity in fractions of chloroform and ethyl acetate of C. sinensis of which were determined the LD50 of 1.67 g.kg-1 and 0.84 g.kg-1 respectively. The extract of M. recutita, at a dose of 3.34 g.kg-1 mass inoculation, also demonstrated a high power-toxic on the liver and spleen. The ethanol extract of C. sinensis, especially in its chloroform fraction, showed good antimicrobial activity against bacterial strains of S. aureus, P. aeruginosa, E. coli and C. albicans strains, showing a pronounced antifungal activity.