Human activities, especially in industry, have contributed to soil contamination with heavy or toxic metals. The objective of this study was to determine the chelating effect and antioxidant activity of pyrogallol, as well as to evaluate its cytoprotective activity in prokaryotic and eukaryotic models, animal and plant, respectively, against toxic mercury chloride action. Antioxidant activity was determined by DPPH where pyrogallol showed considerable action, chelating even iron ions. For the microbiologic activity assays, microdilution was performed to obtain the minimal inhibitory concentration, minimum bactericidal and minimum fungicide concentration, from which the sub-inhibitory concentrations were determined. The product did not conferred cytoprotection to the tested bacteria and fungi. To evaluate plant cytoprotection, Lactuta sativa seeds were used together with the product at a sub-allelopathic concentration with different HgCl2 concentrations. In this case, the tannin conferred cytoprotection to the plant model, allowing the best growth and development of caulicles and radicles, thus preserving tissues necessary for plant survival. From the results, it is observable that pyrogallol possesses cytoprotective action in the eukaryotic plant model, this action being useful as an alternative which favors the growth of plants in contaminated areas, as the recovering of crop fields or reforestation projects.
Keywords: Cytoprotection; Heavy metal; Pyrogallol.