PHYTOCHEMICAL STUDY AND DEVELOPMENT OF A PHOTOPROTECTIVE FORMULATION CONTAINING
LEAVES EXTRACT OF Encholirium spectabile Mart. (Bromeliaceae)
Photoprotector. Phenolic acid. Solar protection factor. Encholirium spectabile
Encholirium spectabile Mart., popularly known in Northeast Brazil as "macambira-deflecha" is a species of the Bromeliaceae family. The objective of this work was to carry out a phytochemical study of the extract of the leaves of E. spectabile and to incorporate this extract in a photoprotective formulation. For this, after collecting and processing the plant material, it went through quality control and production of extracts. Five extracts with different concentrations (alcohol/water) were produced and evaluated with respect to three parameters: phenol content; flavonoid content and photoprotective activity. The selected extract was subjected to several analyses, such as: antioxidant activity by the DPPH radical scavenging method and inhibition of β-carotene autooxidation,
phytochemical screening, chromatographic profile by HPLC-DAD, chemical composition established by LC-MS/ MS, development of a cosmetic formulation, evaluation of its preliminary and accelerated stability, the most stable formulation was evaluated for in vivo FPS, in vitro FPUVA and critical wavelength. The plant drug complies with established standards for quality control. Es-HA80 was the solvent proportion that carried the highest content of phenols and flavonoids and presented the best photoprotective activity. The extract showed very significant in vitro antioxidant activity, phytochemical screening showed the strong presence of hydrolyzed tannins, phenolic compounds and anthracene derivatives. The chromatographic profile showed three phenolic acids (p-coumaric acid, caffeic acid and ferulic acid) and one flavonoid (apigenin). LC-MS/MS analysis identified the presence of 14 compounds, with ethyl caffeate isomers and dicapheoylglycerol isomers identified as the major compounds. The Q formulation was selected for presenting better stability and despite maintaining the FPUVA and decreasing the critical wavelength, it showed an increase in FPS from 14.4 (control) to 18.8. The results show the strong potential of this extract as a phytocosmetic.