12th International Conference of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Green propolis is a bee product of high commercial and medicinal value. Its main botanical source is Baccharis dracunculifolia and one of its major constituents is baccharin. Biotransformation studies with filamentous fungi may provide the same metabolite produced in the human organism, as these fungi have cytochrome P-450 enzymes that are present in human liver. Baccharin was isolated by using high-speed counter current chromatography and biotransformation studies of this compound were performed using Aspergillus alliaceus as microbial model. Two biotransformation products were isolated with yields of 7.8% and 5.6%. The chemical structures of the biotransformation products were identified by spectroscopic analyses and their spectral data were compared with those reported in the literature. There is no work on biotransformation of baccharin and this study aims to obtain information about hepatic metabolism of this compound in human organism, as well as contributing to obtain new derivatives.