Journal of Biosciences and Medicines, 2019, 7, 112-125 https://www.scirp.org/journal/jbm ISSN Online: 2327-509X ISSN Print: 2327-5081 DOI: 10.4236/jbm.2019.712010 Dec. 6, 2019 112 Journal of Biosciences and Medicines In Vitro Evaluation of the Potential Antioxidant of Bidens segetum Mart. ex Colla (Asteraceae) in Melanocyte and Melanoma Cells Simone Dias Franco 1 , Marcelo José Pena Ferreira 2 , Fabiana Henriques Machado de Melo 3 , Jaqueline Pereira Moura Soares 3 , Luce Maria Brandão Torres 1* 1 Núcleo de Pesquisa em Fisiologia e Bioquímica, Instituto de Botânica, São Paulo, Brazil 2 Departamento de Botânica, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil 3 Departamento de Ciências Fisiológicas, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas da Santa Casa de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil Abstract Bidens segetum Martius ex Colla known as the “picão do mato”, is an herba- ceous plant that occurs in the Cerrado biome of some Brazilian states. Among the species of Bidens, we highlight B. pilosa known as “picão preto”, of which several activities are reported as antioxidant and antibacterial. Ethanolic ex- tract from Bidens segetum (EEBs) showed antioxidant potential when ana- lyzed by free radical 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay and anti- fungal activity against Cladosporium cladosporiodes and C. sphareospermum fungi. PFFR3.3 subfraction from EEBs has 81.5% of 5-O caffeoylquinic acid (5-CQA) and potential antioxidant (DPPH). However, PFFR3.3 did not de- crease superoxide anion in metastatic melanoma cells by dihydroethidium assay (DHE). PP4 subfraction is a mixture of polyacetylenes that has antifun- gal (Cladosporium) and antioxidant activity, since reduced superoxide anion amount in melanoma cells after 5 min of treatment. However, no dose-response and time-response curve were observed, not even with the au- thentic standard (5-CQA). Complementary chemical studies will be per- formed to confirm the polyacetylenes and 5-CQA structures present in the EEBs from B. segetum and new methodologies should be performed to con- firm the antioxidant activity of these compounds and the effects on melano- cytes and melanomas. Keywords Asteraceae, Antioxidants, Melanoma, Melanocytes, Polyacetylenes, Chlorogenic Acid How to cite this paper: Franco, S.D., Fer- reira, M.J.P., Melo, F.H.M., Soares, J.P.M. and Torres, L.M.B. (2019) In Vitro Evalua- tion of the Potential Antioxidant of Bidens segetum Mart. ex Colla (Asteraceae) in Melanocyte and Melanoma Cells. Journal of Biosciences and Medicines, 7, 112-125. https://doi.org/10.4236/jbm.2019.712010 Received: October 16, 2019 Accepted: December 3, 2019 Published: December 6, 2019 Copyright © 2019 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access