Estudo da distribuição espacial de canabinoides e alcaloides em folhas de Cannabis sativa e Erythroxylum coca por Imaging Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

Plants are versatile organisms, made up of different tissues and have complex chemical compositions with numerous molecules, many of which change during their development, which represents a great challenge for the scientific area, especially metabolomics. Particularly, the ancient plant’s Cannabis and Erythroxylum coca have a very close relationship with society, either due to their beneficial actions, with possible applications in the treatment of diseases and symptoms, or for their deleterious actions, related to their products for illicit and abusive purposes. Even so, the advances that guide the scientific evolutionary line of these plants are extraordinary, such as the studies of their main constituents that, added to the evolution of analytical instrumentation, become capable of providing new insights, in addition to improving the understanding of their composition and histological organization. Thus, in this thesis, the general concepts related to Cannabis and Erythroxylum coca, as well as the evolution of mass spectrometry, with emphasis on the chemical imaging of intact surfaces using the matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization imaging mass spectrometry – MALDI IMS technique, are reported in Chapter I - state of the art, which summarizes the main contributions contained in its evolutionary lines of research. Subsequently, two works are presented in sequence that address the themes included in the state of the art (Chapter I): Cannabis and study of its main class (cannabinoid) by MALDI IMS, in Chapter II - Scientific article I, which integrates the results related to the development of a method to study the leaf surface of the entire Cannabis leaf, highlighting some regions with a higher prevalence of certain cannabinoids and the relationships between them; and the next one that covers the theme Erythroxylum coca and the spatial distribution of alkaloids and flavonoids by MALDI IMS, in Chapter III - Scientific article II, which also presents a proposal for a method for studying the external and also internal regions of the plant tissue analyzed, with greater abundance of cocaine alkaloid detection, compared to the others monitored. Thus, this thesis presents important and cooperative notes recorded in the literature and results of research analyzes that together show the breadth and rise of the area of cannabinomic and alkaloidomics