Pharmacological and toxicological aspects of barbatimão (Abarema cochliacarpos (GOMES) Barneby & J.W. Grimes)

Goal: To observe pharmacological and toxicological studies of Abarema cochliacarpos (GOMES) Barneby & J.W. Grimes which indicate efficacy and safety in its use as an herbal medicine. Method: Systematic review study in the BVS, PubMed and SciELO databases. The descriptors “Abarema”, “cochliacarpos”, “pharmacological”, and “toxicological” and Boolean operator “AND” were used. Inclusion criteria: Abarema cochliacarpos (GOMES) Barneby & J.W. Grimes; pharmacological action; toxicological action. Exclusion criteria: review study and duplicated articles. The studies were analyzed regarding the in vivo characteristics (mice and rats) or in vitro (cell and bacterial lines), pharmacological or toxicological action, derived from plant drug/part of plant and authorship. Results: 11 articles selected in the review pointed out: analgesic activity tested in Swiss mice; antibacterial in lineages such as Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa; anti-inflammatory tested in Wistar Rats and Swiss mice; antioxidant in vitro model on oxidative damage and also in a Swiss mouse model; antiulcerogenic analyzed in Wistar rats; myoprotective in Swiss mice; estrogenic and thyroid modulation tested in cell lineage. The toxicological essay found approached the hepatotoxicity induced by A. cochliacarpos in Mus musculus mice. Conclusion: A. cochliacarpos has phytoactive constituents with analgesic action, antibacterial, myoprotective, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiulcerogenic, estrogenic and thyroid modulation in animal models in vivo and in vitro, with the bark being the most used part in extracts and fractions. Faced with the need for proof of safety in the use of plants as herbal medicines, toxicological tests have to get conducted to ensure the safe use of the species, as correlated with the barbatimão.