Alopecia is a condition caused by neuropsychiatric, genetics and autoimmune factors. Its main problem is the hair loss, but that can cause millions of skin and emotional problems, besides infections. Thus, millions of dollars are spent annually for the treatment with anti-inflammatories and anti-aging products (Yang et al., 2022). Alongside alopecia, another disease that is more prevalent and cause costs for public and private systems is pharyngitis. This disease is associated with infection or allergic reaction of the respiratory tract. The main problems are swelling and pain caused by inflammation, but fever may also be present, and they can cause difficulties for speaking, eating and sleeping (Tan et al., 2018). A problem faced by these two conditions is the cost and limitation of drugs for their treatment, besides the fact that they can also induce several side effects, such as itching and drug resistance (Yang et al., 2022).

Thereby, the use of plants to improve the treatment and reduce the cons associated with synthetic medicines may help billions of individuals that suffer with alopecia and pharyngitis. For this, species of the genus Mimosa, such as M. tenuiflora, M. pudica, M. verrucosa, M. arenosa and M. caesalpinifolia are examples of medicinal plants that are popularly used to treat asthma, bronchitis and fever (Albuquerque et al., 2007; Majeed et al., 2021). Mimosa acutistipula (Mart.) Benth. found in the phytogeographic domains Cerrado and Caatinga (Rodrigues et al., 2020), has bark and leaves reported to be used in a tea and juice preparation for treating sore throat (pharyngitis) and hair loss associated with alopecia, respectively (Magalhães et al., 2019).

Biological activities exerted by medicinal plants are intrinsically correlated with the presence of their metabolites, mainly those from the secondary metabolism. Varieties of these compounds allow plant products to exert antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antipyretic activities (Hussein and El-Anssary, 2019; Thirumurugan et al., 2018). Due to the possibilities of interaction of these molecules, plant species that act on oxidative stress can prevent damage at the molecular level that are caused by reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, thus preventing aging, chronic inflammation, as well as metabolic and cardiovascular disorders (Brito et al., 2021; Ihsan et al., 2018; Liguori et al., 2018; Nascimento et al., 2022; Singh et al., 2019).

In addition, molecules such as alkaloids, flavonoids and terpenes can directly act on receptors and at metabolic cascades, modulating inflammatory and analgesic responses. M. tenuiflora and M. pudica have been reported for their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities, that were attributed to compounds such as flavonoids and terpenes (Rudra et al., 2021; Süntar, 2020). However, other plants of the genus, such as M. acutistipula, continues to be used in folk medicine, but there is no scientific proof of their benefits, nor of their constituents and mechanisms of action. Thus, the present study aimed to evaluate the antioxidant potential of M. acutistipula and investigate its popular use in inflammation and pain. This study also intends to be the first to report its chemical composition and biological effects.