Cytoprotective effect of Eugenia uniflora L. against the waste contaminant mercury chloride

Abstract

Environmental stressors such as mercury are important for the search of substances to lower induced oxidative damage. Accordingly, secondary metabolites from plants with antioxidant activity represent an interesting alternative. The aim of this work was to evaluate the cytoprotective effect of the ethanol extract of Eugenia uniflora against mercury chloride. The main antioxidant phytochemicals were quantified by HPLC. The chelating effect was evaluated using the O-phenanthroline method. The cytoprotective effect was assayed using bacterial and plant models. The cytotoxic and the negative geotaxis effect was determined using Drosophila melanogaster. The ethanol extract of E. uniflora demonstrated chelating effect against iron, and these results can be related to the total phenols (1079 mg/g) and flavonoids (946.9 mg/g), detected by HPLC and quantified. The same extract demonstrated a cytoprotective effect in both models and a non-toxic effect against D. melanogaster, with low mortality and low inhibition of geotaxis, demonstrating that the extract can reduce the toxicity of this heavy metal against prokaryotic and Eukaryotic organisms. Due the results, we can conclude that the phytocompounds in the ethanol extract of E. uniflora, possibly phenols and flavonoids, could be interesting agents to protect different organisms against the heavy metal damages by a chelating or an antioxidative mechanism. Other studies are still necessary; however, these findings can open a new perspective to the recuperation of environments contaminated by heavy metals. Keywords: Mercurium chloride, Negative geotactic effect, Chelating effect, Cytoprotection, Heavy metal