摘要
A. chilensis （Elaeocarpaceae） is commonly known as maqui, a species widely distributed in Chile. The plant participates in the structure of the Chilean temperate rainforest, currently being found mainly as fragmented forest. Maqui has been listed as the plant with the highest content of phenols when compared with other berries. Multiplication by both, seeds and vegetative has been obtained, opening the possibility to cultivate the plant. Leaves ofmaqui have been traditionally used in the native herbal medicine to treat diverse ailments. Studies indicate the presence of indolic alkaloids, flavonoids, cyaniding glucosides, delfidine, malvidine, petunidine, cumarines and triterpenes. Recent studies support therapeutic properties of maqui leaves, concluding that extracts obtained with polar solvents showed stabilizing capacity of free radicals and antioxidant capacity of plasma in humans. Other works show that fruits could be useful as antioxidant and cardioprotective source. The high contents of anthocyanins and polyglycosylated derivatives make berries of maqui an interesting p｜ant for food and pharmaceutical uses. A. chilensis polyphenols molecular mechanism of action and toxicity can be attributed to functional perturbation of cell membrane lipid bilayers. This review summarizes the research up to date, from propagation methods to chemical properties, indicating weak and lacking aspects.
