FENILPROPANOIDES COM AÇÃO ANTI-Trypanosoma cruzi ISOLADOS DAS FOLHAS DE Piper crassinervium (Piperaceae)

PHENYLPROPANOIDS WITH ANTI-Trypanosoma cruzi ACTION ISOLATED FROM LEAVES OF Piper crassinervium (Piperaceae). In the present work, the hexane extract from leaves of Piper crassinervium (Piperaceae) displayed activity against trypomastigotes of Trypanosoma cruzi (100% of parasite death at 200 μg mL–1) and was subjected to a bioactivity-guided fractionation. Using this approach, two free phenylpropanoids – methyl 2,3,4-trimethoxyphenylpropanoate (1) and methyl 3,4-dimethoxyphenylpropanoate (2) – one amide – 2α,3α-epoxy-1-piperidone (3) – and two phenylpropanoid imides – piplaroxide (4) and 4-hydroxy-3,5-dimethoxyphenylpropanoyl-2’α,3’α-epoxy-1’-piperidone (5) – were isolated. Compound 5 is an unreported metabolite and, except for 3, all other compounds are being described for the first time in P. crassinervium. Compounds 1-5 showed to be non-toxic against mammalian cells (NCTC 929 cells) with 50% cytotoxic concentration (CC50) > 200 μM and when evaluated against trypomastigotes, compounds 4 and 5 displayed higher potential with 50% effective concentration (EC50) values of 14.2 and 25.7 μM, respectively. Otherwise, compounds 1 and 2 exhibited moderate potential (EC50 = 45.7 and 38.3 μM) whereas 3 displayed reduced activity (EC50 = 97.9 μM). Altogether, these data suggested that the phenylpropanoid unit may play an important role in the potential against T. cruzi.