Abstract
Chrysobalanus icaco or guajiru is an amazonian plant whose leaf extract is widely used on Folk Medicine as hypoglycemic, diuretic, antiangiogenic and antioxidant. The guajiru pulp, however, is still understudied. Thanks to the presence of anthocyanins in this fruit, it's possible that it can have antioxidant and functional properties. Furthermore, it is not known if the same leaf effects can be obtained in vivo when using this fruit. This project aimed at studying antigenotoxicity, genotoxicity, antimutagenicity, mutagenicity, the oxidative stress and the gene expression by an in vivo experimental design, of lyophilized guajiru pulp. Male Wistar rats will be treated by gavage with three doses of C. icaco pulp for 14 consecutive days. On 14th day, the animals will receive doxorubicin 15 mg kg-1 b.w. (i.p.) or 0.9% NaCl (i.p.). 24h after the induction, all animals will be euthanized to obtain blood, bone marrow, kidney, liver, heart and brain samples. The comet assay will be performed on blood and organs to evaluate the genotoxicity and antigenotoxicity. To analyze the mutagenicity and antimutagenicity, the micronuclei assay will be performed on bone marrow and peripheral blood. For the oxidative stress, the following parameters will be evaluated: malondialdehyde, glutathione and catalase (on organs) and oxidative burst (on blood). Finally, the gene expression of SOD-1 and COX-2 will be performed on rat liver, kidney and heart, by real-time PCR. At the same time, at FEA-UNICAMP, the guajiru pulp will be characterized by de evaluation of the major bioactive compounds (phenolic compounds, carotenoids, ascorbic acid, tocopherols). (AU)
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