| dc.description.abstract | Salicornia has historically been used both in food and in other non-edible uses. The Oriental
pharmacopoeia reports its medicinal uses. Salicornia neei Lag, a halophyte known as sea asparagus is
found in temperate and subtropical salt marshes along the Atlantic coast of South America, grows in soils
with high interstitial salinity (16 to 55 dS m-1). Investigations were conducted with Salicornia neei Lag
aiming to locate and extract lipids from different parts of the plant (root, stem and leaf), in order to establish
the profile of lipids and know the possible biotechnological applications, considering that the studies on
lipids are mostly related to seed lipids. In this context, analyses were performed with the plant, and among
these analyses, the histochemical method where the plant structure (root, stem and leaf) with higher lipid
synthesis was located, being observed more intense coloration in the oil droplets present in the plant,
which were stained black or dark blue. All structures showed lipid synthesis, but the highest amount of
colored oil droplets were observed in the root. Total lipids were extracted with the solvent system
chloroform: methanol (2:1, 1:1 and 1:2 v/v), showing higher values for the root, corresponding to 10.06%,
followed by the leaf 5.67% and the stem 3.07%, confirming the results of histochemical localization.
Continuing, studies were directed to evaluate the potential of root, stem and leaf oils in antimicrobial
activity. The antimicrobial activity of the lipids isolated from the root, leaf, and stem showed preferential
action against fungi. However, the lipids from the stem showed activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa
UCP 1559 and from the leaf against Bacillus subtilis UCP 1593, respectively, indicating high potential of
both for the pharmaceutical area, generating prospects of applicability as a candidate for the
pharmaceutical area. And the viscosity of the root, stem and leaf oils were also evaluated, the results of
the viscosities were very promising, demonstrating the high potential for application in the development of
hybrid biofuels, representing for root values of 71.4%, stem 85.9% and leaf 76.30%. The promising results
of the studies performed with the oils from S. neei, generated promising perspectives in the development
and innovation from the halophytes plant, where two patents were filed. | eng |
