Correlating Indigenous Peruvian Women's Distance to Cusco and Their Access to Healthcare, and Investigating the Effect of Cat's Claw Extracts on HeLa Cells

Abstract

Uncaria tomentosa, or Cat's Claw, is a large woody vine plant that is indigenous to the Amazonian rain forest. The roots and bark of cat's claw have been used for 2000 years as an herbal remedy for ailments ranging from chronic fatigue to gastrointestinal inflammation, and more recently as an anticancer remedy. To explore the use of Cat's Claw among indigenous women of Peru, the Global Women in STEM Program at Mount Saint Mary's University designed and administered in person a survey that explores socioeconomic factors, access to healthcare, and the use of natural remedies. Survey results showed that Peruvian women often utilize natural remedies to alleviate a wide range of ailments, including cancer. Cat's claw was found to be a common remedy in our survey.Previous chemical analysis of Cat's Claw showed an abundance of polyphenolic compounds such as vanillic acid, gallic acid, and caffeic acid, which are reducing agents. These compounds have been shown to have protective properties against oxidative damage. From the chemical analysis, we hypothesized that both a simple decoction and polyphenolic extract from cat's claw will increase cell viability and decrease cytotoxicity in HeLa cells. In order to test this, we isolated the phenolic compounds of Cat's Claw by soxhlet extraction and compared its effects against previously synthesized vanillic, gallic, and caffeic acids using MTT and LDH Cytotoxicity assays. Our results showed that the purified Cat's Claw extract increased cell viability and decreased cytotoxicity, in comparison to the decocted crude extract. The crude extract exhibited a clear concentration‐dependent trend with a steady decrease in viability and increase in cytotoxicity as the volume of crude extract increased. Similar to the purified extract: the synthesized vanillic, caffeic, and gallic acids showed high cell viability and low cytotoxicity.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.