Detalhes do Documento

Chlorogenic acid isomers have been increasingly studied because of their beneficial biological effects in humans. However, their commercial analytical standards are high cost, a fact that limits research. Yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis) is a lowcost, natural plant matrix with marked contents of chlorogenic acids, but its potential as a source of analytical standards of chlogenic acids has never been investigated. Thus, this study aimed to optimize a method to extract, isolate, and purify analytical standards of six chlorogenic acids (3-caffeoylquinic, 4-caffeoylquinic, 5-caffeoylquinic, 3,4-dicaffeoylquinic, 3,5-dicaffeoylquinic, and 4,5-dicaffeoylquinic) from yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis) using semi-preparative high-performance liquid chromatography. For this, sequential statistical multivariate approaches (central composite designs) were utilized. Using the optimized extraction conditions (5 mL of ethanol:water 26:74 v/v, stirring for 30 min at 60 °C), 1000 g of yerba mate gave a concentrated extract totalizing 21.57 g of chlorogenic acid isomers. We established optimized chromatographic conditions to obtain analytical standards of each compound individually, as well as to produce a mix containing all the compounds, with high yields and purities above 97%. Thus, the optimized conditions to obtain the standards have an excellent yield, employed a natural low-cost matrix, and used simple and automated processes with potential to produce in laboratory and industrial scale. These results show the potential of yerba mate as a novel source of standards of chlorogenic acids, and provide an effective method to produce them in laboratories worldwide, which may contribute to advance the research on these compounds.