Cytotoxic potential of selected medicinal plants in northeast Brazil

Great biodiversity is a highlight of Brazilian flora. In contrast, the therapeutic potentialities of most species used in folk medicine remain unknown. Several of these species are commonly used to treat cancer. In this study, we investigated the cytotoxic activity of 18 plants from 16 families that...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	BMC complementary and alternative medicine Vol. 16; no. 1; p. 199
Main Authors:	da Silva, Thiago B C, Costa, Cinara O D'Sousa, Galvão, Alexandre F C, Bomfim, Larissa M, Rodrigues, Ana Carolina B da C, Mota, Mauricio C S, Dantas, Alex A, Dos Santos, Tiago R, Soares, Milena B P, Bezerra, Daniel P
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	England BioMed Central Ltd 08-07-2016 BioMed Central
Subjects:	Adult Animals Brazil Cell Line, Tumor Cell Survival - drug effects Health aspects Humans Inhibitory Concentration 50 Medicinal plants Medicine, Traditional Mice Phytotherapy Plant Extracts - chemistry Plant Extracts - toxicity Plants, Medicinal - chemistry Brazil Medicinal plants Cytotoxicity Northeastern Brazil Natural products
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	Great biodiversity is a highlight of Brazilian flora. In contrast, the therapeutic potentialities of most species used in folk medicine remain unknown. Several of these species are commonly used to treat cancer. In this study, we investigated the cytotoxic activity of 18 plants from 16 families that are found in the northeast region of Brazil. The following species were studied: Byrsonima sericea DC. (Malpighiaceae), Cupania impressinervia Acev. Rodr. var. (revoluta) Radlk (Sapindaceae), Duranta repens Linn. (Verbenaceae), Helicostylis tomentosa (Poepp. & Endl) Rusby (Moraceae), Himatanthus bracteatus (A.DC.) Woodson (Apocynaceae), Ipomoea purga (Wender.) Hayne (Convolvulaceae), Ixora coccinea Linn. (Rubiaceae), Mabea piriri Aubl. (Euphorbiaceae), Miconia minutiflora (Melastomataceae), Momordica charantia L. (Cucurbitaceae), Ocotea glomerata (Nees) Mez (Lauraceae), Ocotea longifolia Kunth (Oreodaphne opifera Mart. Nees) (Lauraceae), Pavonia fruticosa (Mill.) Fawc. & Rendle (Malvaceae), Psychotria capitata Ruiz & Pav. (Rubiaceae), Schefflera morototoni (Aubl.) Maguire, Steyerm. & Frodin (Araliaceae), Solanum paludosum Moric. (Solanaceae), Xylopia frutescens Aubl. (Annonaceae) and Zanthoxylum rhoifolium Lam. (Rutaceae). Their dried leaves, stems, flowers or fruits were submitted to different solvent extractions, resulting in 55 extracts. After incubating for 72 h, the cytotoxicity of each extract was tested against tumor cell lines using the alamar blue assay. The B. sericea, D. repens, H. bracteatus, I. purga, I. coccinea, M. piriri, O. longifolia and P. capitata extracts demonstrated the most potent cytotoxic activity. The chloroform soluble fractions of D. repens flowers and the hexane extract of I. coccinea flowers led to the isolation of quercetin and a mixture of α- and β-amyrin, respectively, and quercetin showed moderate cytotoxic activity. The B. sericea, D. repens, H. bracteatus, I. purga, I. coccinea, M. piriri, O. longifolia and P. capitata plants were identified as having potent cytotoxic effects. Further investigations are required to determine the mechanisms of cytotoxicity exhibited and their in vivo activities. This work reinforces the need to understand the therapeutics potentialities of Brazilian medicinal plants.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	1472-6882 1472-6882
DOI:	10.1186/s12906-016-1166-1