2.2.
Plant
material
and
sampling
procedure
The plant material was obtained by collecting branches with
a
diameter
greater
than
10
mm
(residue)
of
I.
paraguariensis
A.
St.
Hil.
from
mate
trees
in
Catanduvas
in
Santa
Catarina
state,
Brazil
(27◦S, 51◦40
W,
altitude
925
m).
The
samples
were
randomly chosen from 20-year-old mate trees, cultivated in
an
agroforestry
system
along
with
Araucaria
angustifolia
pines.
The sampling procedure consisted of drying mate bark in
a
forced
air
oven
(50 ◦C/24 h) and grinding it in a knife mill
(Marconi,
MA-580,
Piracicaba,
Brazil)
after
the
bark
was
man-
ually
separated
from
the
branches.
The
dried
samples
were
frozen at −40 ± 2 ◦C and packaged in airtight plastic bags and
aluminum packages and stored in a freezer (−18 ± 2 ◦C) until
required.