Chilean Plants as a Source of Polyphenols - Natural Antioxidants and Biocides from Wild Medicinal Plants - page 122

language of the Mapuche, an indigenous
group from Chile). Villagran (1998) indi-
cates that most Mapuche plant names refer
to morphological (51.1%), ecological (19.3%)
and utilitarian (21%) relationships. The mor-
phological relationships take into account
properties of the plant itself as well as mor-
phological similarities with other plants,
animals and objects. The ecological rela-
tionships refer both to habitat properties
and plant sociology as well as interactions
with animals, mainly birds. Of the names
based on utilitarian relationships, half of
these express medicinal properties that are
specific to the plants.
The Mapuche medicinal flora holds a
vast, rich body of knowledge learned and
transmitted within the culture throughout
space and time (Estomba et al ., 2006; Lozada
et al ., 2006). For example, Molares and
Ladio (2009) quantitatively reviewed infor-
mation on Mapuche ethnobotany, published
for Argentina and Chile, that considered
rural communities distributed throughout
an area extending between approximately
37° and 46° (South Latitude). These com-
munities were established in different phy-
togeographical provinces. Among these,
communities in Central Chile were studied.
These authors recorded 505 species, of
which 304 (60%) were native and 196 (39%)
exotic. This review covered more native
species than the lists of THM (Table 8.1),
which considered only 39% of Chilean
plants. This confirms the significant contri-
bution of exotic plants to the THM know-
ledge of Chile. On the other hand, part of
this traditional knowledge is being lost due
to the high migration of population from
rural to urban areas. Also some reports
(FAO, 2008) by Chilean public institutions
showed that only about 30% of Chilean
plants have any known use.
The medicinal effects related to Chilean
native plants in Table 8.1 are very extensive
(i.e. 30 different effects). The most common
are: anti-inflammatory (45% of species),
purifier (32.5% of species), diuretic (30% of
species), febrifuge (25% of species) and
antimicrobial/antibacterial and antifungal
(22.5% of species). These effects could be
attributed to plant natural products (PNPs)

that have shown many types of biological
activities (BAs) mainly in in vitro studies.
Terpenes (isoprenoids) have shown antimi-
crobial activity against some Gram-positive
and Gram-negative bacteria (Potduang et al .,
2007; Poblete et al ., 2009; Popova et al .,
2009), human pathogenic fungi (Popova
et al ., 2009) and protozoa (Olagnier et al .,
2007; Pinheiro et al ., 2009). The wide use of
plant essential oils (i.e. mixture of diter-
penes, sesquiterpenes and polyphenols)
as bactericidals, virucidals, fungicidals,
antiparasiticals and insecticidals has been
carefully compiled by Bakkali et al . (2008).
Terpenes also have analgaesic (Corvalán
et al., 2008), anti-hyperglycaemic and anti-
inflammatory (Paduch et al ., 2007) effects.
Alkaloids exhibit antiviral, antimalarial,
antioxidant, anti-inflammatory (Okwu and
Uchenna, 2009), antifungal (Kuta, 2008;
Okwu and Uchenna, 2009) and anti-tumour
activities (Ingrassia et al ., 2008). Alkaloids
also have antimicrobial activity against
plant-parasitic nematodes (Thoden and
Boppre, 2010). Polyphenols have cardio-
protective (Cale et al ., 2010; Xia et al ., 2010),
antioxidant (Bouaziz et al ., 2009; Janicsak
et al ., 2010; Xia et al ., 2010), antimicrobial
(Bouaziz et al ., 2009; Xia et al ., 2010), anti-
cancer and anti-inflammatory properties
(Xia et al ., 2010). Much research of the BA
of plants considers extracts (e.g. acetone,
methanol and water extracts). This means
that in plant extracts (PEs) that contain a
mixture of terpenes, alkaloids and polyphe-
nols (Jimoh et al ., 2010) or compounds that
are soluble in these different solvents, the
potent BA could be more attributed to a
'cocktail' of PNPs rather than to individual
organic compounds.

8.2 Scientific Evidence Supporting
Biological Activity Associated with
the Presence of Polyphenols in
Chilean Plants

Several thousand molecules having a
polyphenol structure (i.e. several hydroxyl
groups on aromatic rings) have been identi-
fied in higher plants. These compounds are