ABSTRACT
The species Dicksonia sellowiana, popularly known as xaxim, is a fern native to the Americas and found in Brazil in the Atlantic Forest. In 2001, its use for making gardening pots was banned, and it was added to the IBAMA [Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources] list as an endangered species. This paper describes the effect of different extraction techniques – including ultrasound, turbolysis, maceration, infusion, decoction, and soxhlet using ethanol and 70% hydroalcoholic solvent on its physical and chemical aspects. The yield of each extraction was evaluated, as well as the profile by HPLC-DAD, the polyphenol content, flavonoids, proanthocyanidins, and steroids, in addition to the antioxidant activities through the DPPH and phosphomolybdenum complex reduction methods. The data were statistically analyzed through standard deviation, Tukey, and PCA. The results showed that the soxhlet extraction using both solvents had the highest overall yield; however, the yield is not directly related to the increase in total bioactive content and antioxidant activities. Extractions by decoction and turbolysis using a hydroalcoholic solvent exhibited the best results in total content and antioxidant activity – results that are evident when evaluated through PCA, demonstrating that this solvent and these extractions are the most selective in the proposed study.
Keywords
Dicksonia sellowiana; extraction techniques; bioactives; antioxidant activity
