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Anticancer plants: Properties and Application pp 37–55Cite as

Phytochemical and Biological Properties of Lippia gracilis

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Abstract

Lippia gracilis Schauer is popularly known as “alecrim-da-chapada” and “candeia-de-queimar.” It is a native plant in the semiarid region of Northeast Brazil. The present chapter summarizes the phytochemical and biological properties of L. gracilis. The nonvolatile constituents of L. gracilis include flavone and flavanones, while the major volatile compounds are carvacrol, p-cymene, γ-terpinene, thymol, and thymol methyl ether. In addition, three different chemotypes such as thymol type (T), carvacrol type (C), and intermediate type, which contains both carvacrol and thymol (CT), are also found in high percentage. Its biological properties include cytotoxic, antitumor, anti-inflammatory, antinociceptive, antioxidant, antibacterial, fungicidal, leishmanicidal, amebicidal, larvicidal, molluscicidal, and acaricidal activity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Federal University of Sergipe, São Cristóvão, Sergipe, Brazil

    Valéria Regina de Souza Moraes & Paulo Cesar de Lima Nogueira

  2. Department of Chemistry, Federal University of Amazonas, Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil

    Emmanoel Vilaça Costa

  3. Gonçalo Moniz Institute, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

    Luciano de Souza Santos, Valdenizia Rodrigues Silva, Larissa Mendes Bomfim & Daniel Pereira Bezerra

Authors
  1. Valéria Regina de Souza Moraes
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  2. Paulo Cesar de Lima Nogueira
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  3. Emmanoel Vilaça Costa
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  4. Luciano de Souza Santos
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  5. Valdenizia Rodrigues Silva
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  6. Larissa Mendes Bomfim
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  7. Daniel Pereira Bezerra
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, Gandhi Faiz-e-Aam College, Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Mohd Sayeed Akhtar

  2. Department of Crop Science Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

    Mallappa Kumara Swamy

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de Souza Moraes, V.R. et al. (2018). Phytochemical and Biological Properties of Lippia gracilis. In: Akhtar, M., Swamy, M. (eds) Anticancer plants: Properties and Application. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8548-2_2

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