Evaluation of genotoxicity and coumarin production in conventional and organic cultivation systems of Mikania glomerata Spreng

Abstract

Mikania glomerata Sprengel, popularly known as “guaco,” is used in Brazilian folk medicine for several inflammatory and allergic conditions. Besides, the popular use “guaco” is indicated by the Brazilian Ministry of Health as a safe and effective herbal medicine. The biological activity of M. glomerata extracts is due to the presence of the coumarins, a large family of phenolic substances found in plants and is made of fused benzene and α-pyrone rings. Considering that there are few data on the biological effects of the extracts of M. glomerata, mainly in genetic level, this work aims to evaluate, in vitro, the genotoxicity and coumarin production in M. glomerata in conventional and organic growing. The data showed that the organic culture system showed double the concentration of coumarin being significantly more productive than the conventional system. Besides, the results of comet assay suggest that extracts of M. glomerata cultivated in a conventional system was genotoxic, increased DNA damage levels while the organic extracts seem to have antigenotoxic effect possibly due to the concentration of coumarins. Additional biochemical investigations are necessary to elucidate the mechanisms of action of M. glomerata extracts, which were found to have a role in protection against DNA damage.

Keywords:

• Mikania glomerata
• coumarin
• conventional farming systems
• DNA damage
• organic farming systems

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Graduate Program in Health Sciences (PPGCS) and Graduate Program of Environmental Sciences at the Universidade do Extremo Sul Catarinense for the use of their equipment, in order to carry out this research and University Rennes (France) by analysis of the NMR.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by PIBIC/UNESC, Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento (CNPq), Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa e Inovação do Estado de Santa Catarina (FAPESC).