Infraspecific Chemical Variability and Biological Activity of Casearia sylvestris from Different Brazilian Biomes.

is an outstanding representative of the genus. This representability comes from its distinctive chemical profile and pharmacological properties. This species is widespread from North to South America, occurring in all Brazilian biomes. Based on their morphology, 2 varieties are recognized: var. and var. . Despite the existence of data about their chemical composition, a deeper understanding of the specialized metabolism correlation and variation in respect to environmental factors and its repercussion over their biological activities was still pending. In this study, an UHPLC-DAD-based metabolomics approach was employed for the investigation of the chemical variation of 12 populations sampled across 4 Brazilian biomes and ecotones. The correlation between infraspecific chemical variability and the cytotoxic and antioxidant activities was achieved by multivariate data analysis. The analyses showed that var. prevailed at Cerrado areas, and it was correlated with lower cytotoxic activity and high level of glycosylated flavonoids. Among them, narcissin and isorhamnetin-3--L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1 → 2)--L-arabinopyranoside showed good correlation with the antioxidant activity. Conversely, var. prevailed at the Atlantic Forest areas, and it was associated with high cytotoxic activity and high content of clerodane diterpenoids. Different casearins showed good correlation (  = 0.3 - 0.70) with the cytotoxic activity. These findings highlighted the great complexity among different populations, their chemical profile, and the related biological activities. Consequently, it can certainly influence the medicinal properties, as well as the quality and efficacy, of phytomedicines.

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