Abstract

Piper lepturum var. angustifolium (C.DC.) Yunck. belongs to the family Piperaceae which is widely found from North to South of Brazil. Crude n-hexane extract from leaves of P. lepturum var. angustifolium was assayed to anti-herpes simplex viruses (HSV) activity against HSV-1 and HSV-2 in cell cultures, incubated at 37°C for 48 h in a 5% CO₂ atmosphere. Chemical profile of the extract was performed in a Shimadzu high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector-ultraviolet (HPLC-DAD-UV), using a RP-18 column and mobile phase in gradient of acetonitrile and acid deionized water (pH = 3.0), at a flow rate of 1.0 ml/min. The HPLC analyses showed signals characteristics of non-polar compounds, mainly distributed between 50 and 70 min. UV spectra of the three main compounds (50.3% of the mixture) suggested isomers, with only one ÊŽmax at 235 nm. The crude n-hexanic extract showed 94.4% inhibition to HSV-1 with ED₅₀ value of 5.2 µg/ml and selective index superior to 38.4. Considering HSV-2, the extract promoted 92.7% of inhibition with ED₅₀ value of 1.1 µg/ml and selectivity index (SI) superior to 181.8. These results point out this species of Piperaceae as a source of active compounds for the treatment of infections caused by herpes simplex virus.

Key words: Antiviral activity, herpes simplex virus type 1, herpes simplex virus type 2, Piper lepturum var. angustifolium, Piperaceae, high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector-ultraviolet (HPLC-DAD-UV).