, 2009). This plant is very rich in different biologically ABT-199 cell line active compounds, such as phenols, methylxanthines, triterpene saponins, flavonoids, minerals, and others. It is widely used in folk medicine because of its many health-promoting effects, such as anti-inflammatory, anti-obesity and anti-cancer, and mainly antioxidant activity ( Heck & Mejia, 2007). Concentration of the biologically

active compounds present in mate is generally performed by solid–liquid extraction, which promotes a significant dilution. The occurrence of such dilution is attributable to several factors, such as limited quantity of solid content and overall nutritional composition, which can vary according to the different regions and times of harvesting, among other factors. Besides, the traditional approaches used for concentrating biologically active compounds from natural products include simple steam-and-vacuum distillation, which generally requires high temperature and high energy consumption. These methods may result in nutritional loss caused by the instability of bioactive compounds, due to the application of a high temperature for a long period of time (Sonaglio, Ortega, Petrovick, & Bassani, 2007). The utilisation of membrane technologies for concentrating bioactive compounds from

natural products has been successfully employed, for example, with Gingko biloba extract ( Xu & Wang, 2005). Compared to the traditional methods used for concentrating biologically active compounds, membrane concentration process reveals new possibilities because www.selleckchem.com/products/GDC-0941.html of advantages, such as working at ordinary temperatures, absence of phase transition, and low energy consumption ( Santamaría, Salazar, Beltrán, & Cabezas, 2002). This procedure is based on the principle of selective permeation of the solute molecules through semi-permeable

membranes. The liquid that is retained by the membrane is called concentrate and the liquid that passes through it is called permeate. In most membrane processes, such as microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, and reverse osmosis, PLEKHM2 the driving force for mass transfer across the membrane is mechanical pressure ( Maroulis & Saravacos, 2003, chap. 10). The main advantage of employing NF membranes for the concentration of bioactive compounds of mate is that by selecting membranes with suitable molecular weight cut-off (MWCO), this technology can be used to fractionate molecules of similar molecular weight (100–1000 Da range). The aim of this work was to characterise the bioactive compounds in extract and concentrated extract of Ilex paraguariensis St. Hil. Besides evaluating the effects of NF on these valuable bioactive compounds, in this work we also evaluated the antioxidant activity of these mate extracts in vitro and using eukaryotic cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yeast assay).