Roseli Buzanelli Torres

Climate, soil and tree flora relationships in forests in the state of São Paulo, southeastern Brasil

ABSTRACT - (Climate, soil and tree flora relationships in forests in the state of Sao Paulo, southteastern Brasil). With the aim of verifying possible influences of abiotic features on the spatial distribution of forest tree species and families, thirteen surveys in the state of Sao Paulo were selected, representing different conditions (localization at the extreme coordenates and altitudes, succesional stages, surveying methods). By applying Jaccards Index to the binary matrices of 806 synonymized specific binomina and 79 families (Cronquists system) phenograms were constructed using the method of the unweighted pair grouping by mathematical average (UPGMA). The species formed two floristic blocks: hygrophyllous (yearly rainfall greater than 2000 mm without dry season) and mesophyllous (yearly rainfall about 1400 mm with variable dry season). The latter was divided in two other groups: the high-altitudinal (median altitudes higher than 750 m, frost average frequency greater than 3 days/year) and low-altitudinal. Both mesophyllous floristic blocks were subdivided according to soil conditions (texture, eutrophism, acid or allic dystrophism, iron content). At the family level the relations were weak, but also showed the soil nutritional status as a possible constraint to the spatial partition of families.

Cytotoxic Clerodane Diterpenes from Casearia rupestris

Four new clerodane diterpenes, casearupestrins A-D (1-4), were isolated from the leaves of Casearia rupestris. Compounds 1 and 4 were acetylated to yield 2,7-di-O-acetylcasearupestrin A (5) and 2,6-di-O-acetylcasearupestrin D (6). All compounds were evaluated for cytotoxicity against a small panel of human cancer cell lines. Casearupestrin A (1) exhibited the most potent activity against MDA/MB-435 (human melanoma) and SF-295 (human glioblastoma) cells, superior to that of the standard drug doxorubicin.

Composição florística e síndromes de polinização e de dispersão da mata do Sítio São Francisco, Campinas, SP, Brasil

A floristic survey of the seasonal semi-deciduous forest located in the Sitio Sao Francisco was undertaken, together with studies of pollination and dispersion syndromes of the species. A total of 46 families, 116 genera and 148 species (50 trees, 35 lianas, 26 shrubs and 37 herbs) was found. The richest families in number of arboreal species were Euphorbiaceae (8), Fabaceae (7), Meliaceae (6) and Rutaceae (5). The lianas were distributed mainly in the following families: Bignoniaceae (13), Sapindaceae (5) and Malpighiaceae (3), while in the herbaceous plants, the richest families were Poaceae (8) and Asteraceae (5), and among the shrubs were Piperaceae (7) and Rubiaceae (5). The most frequent pollination and dispersion syndromes were respectively, melittophily (73%) and zoochory (63%), both predominating in the sub-arboreal stratum. More than one type of pollination syndrome was observed in some species. Comparing data from this study with seven surveys carried out in the municipality of Campinas, Sitio Sao Francisco forest showed an intermediate position between the hygrophilous formations and the seasonal semi-deciduous forests as well as the occurrence of some exclusive arboreal and lianas species.

Cytotoxic clerodane diterpenoids from Casearia obliqua.

A crude bioactive EtOH extract of the twigs of Casearia obliqua afforded two new clerodane diterpenes, caseobliquins A (1) and B (2). Additionally, bioactivity-directed fractionation on a bioactive hexane extract of the leaves from this species led to the isolation of the known clerodane diterpenes rel-6beta-hydroxyzuelanin-2beta-benzoate and rel-2alpha-hydroxyzuelanin-6beta-benzoate (3 and 4) as a mixture and 2beta-hydroxyzuelanin-6beta-cinnamate (5). The structures of the new clerodanes 1 and 2 were established on the basis of their 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopic data, and the new compound 1 and the known substance 5 had their absolute configurations determined by circular dichroism spectroscopy. The cytotoxicity of several of the compounds isolated was evaluated against a small panel of human tumor cell lines.

Estudo do componente arbóreo de dois trechos da Floresta Ombrófila Densa Submontana em Ubatuba (SP)

We studied the floristic composition and structure of the arboreal component (trees, palms and ferns with DBH equal to or greater than 4.8 cm) of two plots of Lower Montane Rain Forest in Ubatuba, SP, one with a history of selective logging and the other more preserved. We sampled 50 families, 114 genera and 193 species (four undetermined). The richest families were Myrtaceae, Fabaceae, Lauraceae, Rubiaceae, Melastomataceae and Sapotaceae. In the disturbed plot we sampled 104 species, 72 genera and 39 families, and in the more preserved area, 152 species, 98 genera and 43 families. There were differences in species richness, in the prevalence of their succesional status and in the structure of the areas, and the multivariate analysis allowed recognition of two floristic blocks. Among all species, 33 were exclusive of the first plot and 95 were exclusive of the second plot. Almost half of the species (45%) occurred with only one or two individuals and 29 have some degree of rarity. Five species are in the category of vulnerable in the List of brazilian plant species threatened of extinction. The differences observed between the sites studied, as well as the occurrence of rare and endangered species highlight the importance of the conservation of the area.

Análise multicriterial na seleção de bacia hidrográfica para recuperação ambiental.

The Anhumas creek watershed, in the region of Campinas, Sao Paulo State, Brazil, is degraded also as a result of unplanned land use of its riparian zones, considered Permanent Preservation Areas (APP). Therefore, river flow is unstable, promoting frequent flood damages, besides the lack of several environmental functions of its APPs. Environmental recovery of a degraded area requires a comprehensive effort, often multidisciplinary. Multicriterial analysis is a tool which allows gathering a diversity of attributes of the studied subject, weighing and valuating them, helping in the decision making effort. This work aims to apply two methods of multicriteria analysis to optimize the selection of a watershed for an environmental recovery study of APPs in the Anhumas watershed. The Anhumas watershed was divided in 7 sub-basins aiming the selection of one of those to implement an environmental planning study and to establish and rank areas that should be prioritized for recovery. Thirteen environmental criteria were selected for application of multicriteria analysis using the methods of Compromise Programming (PC) and Cooperative Game Theory (CGT). Relevance of each criterion to the analysis was given by a questionnaire answered by specialists. Basin selection results showed no difference neither between PC and CGT nor between mean or mode used to standardize weights given by specialists. Multicriteria analysis was effective, but allowed enough flexibility for the decision maker (DM) to adjust undesired analysis distortions. After DM adjustments, the priority basins were ranked as basins 4 > 7 > 5 > 6 > 2 > 3 > 1. Important procedures when carrying out such an analysis were to avoid conceptual overlapping among different criteria, to implement appropriate value judgment for each criterion and to use decision maker expertise to supplement weights obtained with specialists.

Chave de identificação de espécies do estrato arbóreo da Mata Atlântica em Ubatuba (SP), com base em caracteres vegetativos

The identification key was developed taking into account the herbarium specimens from the species of the arboreal stratum sampled, with at least 4.8 cm DBH, in two stretches of Lower Montane Rain Forest. Only morphological vegetative characters were used, such as phyllotaxy, leaf shape, presence or absence of stipules, trichomes and glands, and other aspects relevant to the species identification, besides field observations. The key comprises 193 (4 without identification) species belonging to 114 genera and 50 botanical families, and an interactive electronic version is available online at the site http://www.gama.ib.unicamp.br/gama/index.php.

Development of a comprehensive method for analyzing clerodane‐type diterpenes and phenolic compounds from Casearia sylvestris Swartz (Salicaceae) based on ultra high performance liquid chromatography combined with chemometric tools

This work describes the development and optimization of an analytical method utilizing liquid chromatography and chemometrics to evaluate and differentiate two varieties of Casearia sylvestris Swartz (Salicaceae) from São Paulo State (Brazil) based on their secondary metabolite profiles. Previously, analytical studies only concerned the analysis of clerodane-type diterpenes. Therefore, considering the importance of including phenolic compounds in such analysis, we used design of experiments to simultaneously extract and detect the largest number of compounds from both chemical classes. This new strategy allowed a comprehensive chromatographic analysis of C. sylvestris, and the results for the two varieties exhibited an interesting distribution according to their original ecosystems, suggesting a strong correlation to the main metabolites found in each species group. Besides their inherent morphological differences, C. sylvestris variety lingua, mainly found in Cerrado areas, predominantly contains phenolic compounds, while C. sylvestris variety sylvestris, mainly found in Atlantic Forest areas, contains mostly clerodane-type diterpenes. Finally, it was also possible to observe differences in the secondary metabolite composition within each group depending on the place where samples were collected.

Espécies da flora nativa nas Estações Experimentais da Agência Paulista de Tecnologia dos Agronegócios, Instituto Agronômico de Campinas, Estado de São Paulo, Brasil

The native vegetation of the state of Sao Paulo is mainly characterized by small isolated fragments, like the ones found in several Agencia Paulista de Tecnologia dos Agronegocios experimental stations. Based on exsiccates from the Instituto Agronomico de Campinas Herbarium collection, we elaborated a list of the vascular flora of these remnants in 21 experimental stations. Mata Atlântica remnants are predominant, but three experimental stations had also fragments of Cerrado, and only two had no species recorded in the collection. We found 2,457 samples belonging to 120 families, 493 genera, and 947 species. The most diverse families were Fabaceae, Asteraceae, and Rubiaceae. Two species are threatened of extinction. Taxa with medicinal, ornamental, and/or feeding potential were found, as well as species not reported for the state of Sao Paulo in the Flora of Brasil database. The results indicate the need of regularization of the legal and permanent conservation areas and the need to increase the mechanisms of protection of the remnants and their rich genetic inheritance.