Jatropha (Jatropha curcas L.) is a plant native of Central and South America, but widely\ndistributed in the wild or semi-cultivated areas in Africa, India, and South East Asia. Although\nstudies are available in literature on the polyphenolic content and bioactivity of Jatropha curcas L.,\nno information is currently available on plants grown in pedoclimatic and soil conditions different\nfrom the autochthon regions. The aim of the present work was to characterize the antioxidant system\ndeveloped by the plant under a new growing condition and to evaluate the polyphenol amount\nin a methanolic extract of leaves. Along with these analyses we have also tested the antioxidant\nand cytoprotective activities on lymphocytes. RP-HPLC-DAD analysis of flavonoids revealed a\nchromatographic profile dominated by the presence of flavone C-glucosydes. Vitexin is the most\nabundant identified compound followed by vicenin-2, stellarin-2, rhoifolin, and traces of isovitexin\nand isorhoifolin. Methanolic extract had high scavenging activity in all antioxidant assays tested and\ncytoprotective activity on lymphocytes exposed to tertz-buthylhydroperoxide. The results highlighted\na well-defined mechanism of adaptation of the plant and a significant content of secondary metabolites\nwith antioxidant properties, which are of interest for their potential uses, especially as a rich source\nof biologically active products.
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