Caracterización de metabolitos secundarios de naturaleza esteroidea presentes en el aceite esencial y extractos etanólico y clorofórmico de la especie Clinopodium tomentosum (Kunth) Govaerts (Lamiaceae)

Abstract

In this study, steroid molecules were identified in extracts from the Clinopodium tomentosum (Kunth) Govaerts species. In both the ethanolic, chloroform extracts and in the essential oils, sterols could be quantified and qualified. The tests were done quantitatively using spectrophotometric methodologies, in the ethanolic and chloroform extracts with the following results: chloroform extract of flowers 9.23 ± 0.01 mg/g drug; ethanolic extract of flowers 17.04 ± 0.06 mg/g drug; chloroform extract of aerial parts 7.15 ± 0.02 mg/g drug; ethanolic extract of aerial parts 17.49 ± 0.17 mg/g drug. The sterols content was determined in three essential oils from various parts of the plant, using the gas chromatography technique coupled to mass spectrometry, it was possible to identify the nature of a steroid molecule that was identified as a derivative of androstane (C21), a precursor of phytosterols, whose results in the different oils were: 0.87 ± 0.09 % was quantified in flowers, 0.5 ± 0.0 % in aerial parts and 0 ± 0.00 % in leaves. The specific nature of the molecule is in verification with higher resolution spectrometric techniques. This investigation justifies the traditional use of the species, of which preparations are used from its flowers to increase uterine contractions at the time of labor, by the ancestral communities of the inter-Andean region of Ecuador and in this way to contribute the verification of this knowledge through scientific research processes.