NOTE Protective effects of flavonoids and extract from Vellozia kolbekii Alves against oxidative stress induced by hydrogen peroxide in yeast Carmelita Gomes da Silva • Camilla Dayane F. Carvalho • Lidilhone Hamerski • Frederico A. V. Castro • Ruy Jose ´ Va ´lka Alves • Carlos Roland Kaiser • Elis Cristina Arau ´ jo Eleutherio • Cla ´udia Moraes de Rezende Received: 12 June 2011 / Accepted: 19 August 2011 / Published online: 14 September 2011 Ó The Japanese Society of Pharmacognosy and Springer 2011 Abstract Two flavonoids 3,5,7,3 0 ,4 0 -pentahydroxy-6- prenylflavonol (1) and 3,5,7,3 0 ,4 0 -pentahydroxy-8-methyl- 6-prenylflavonol (2) were isolated from the ethyl acetate extract of sheaths of Vellozia kolbekii Alves (Vellozia- ceae). This is the first time that compound 2 has been described. The crude extract and flavonoids were found to be active as 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavengers and were able to the increase tolerance of the eukaryotic microorganism Saccharomyces cerevisiae to oxidative stress generated by H 2 O 2 . The protective effect was correlated with a reduction in the oxidation of proteins and lipids. In addition, flavonoids isolated from Vellozia- ceae showed an inhibitory effect on mutations in p53, which is mutated and nonfunctional in more than 50% of cases of human cancer. Keywords Vellozia kolbekii (Velloziaceae) Á Antioxidant activity Á Antimutagenic activity Á Flavonoids Á Saccharomyces cerevisiae Á p53 factor Introduction Vellozia kolbekii is a species typical of the Brazilian cer- rado and was discovered in 1992 [1]. This plant belongs to the family of the Velloziaceae, which includes 270 species distributed mainly in tropical South America, with a few outliers in Africa and Arabia [2]. In Brazil, they are com- monly known as canelas-de-ema. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11418-011-0585-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. C. G. da Silva (&) Á C. D. F. Carvalho Á L. Hamerski Á C. M. de Rezende Laboratory of the Analysis of Aromas, Department of Organic Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Athos da Silveira Ramos, 149, University City, 21945-970 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil e-mail: carme_gomes@yahoo.com.br C. D. F. Carvalho e-mail: camilla_dfc@hotmail.com L. Hamerski e-mail: lidihamerski@ig.com.br C. M. de Rezende e-mail: claudia.rezendeufrj@gmail.com F. A. V. Castro Á E. C. A. Eleutherio Laboratory of the Investigation of Stress factors (LIFE), Department of Biochemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, 21949-900 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil F. A. V. Castro e-mail: frede.augusto@uol.com.br E. C. A. Eleutherio e-mail: eliscael@iq.ufrj.br R. J. V. Alves National Museum, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, 20940-040 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil e-mail: ruyvalka@yahoo.com C. R. Kaiser Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Laboratory, Department of Organic Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil e-mail: kaiser.ufrj@gmail.com 123 J Nat Med (2012) 66:367–372 DOI 10.1007/s11418-011-0585-z