Inhibition of seed germination, toxicity on Artemia salina and phytochemical prospecting with from Cuban plants as indicator of antitumo activity

Luz María Sánchez Perera,Betty Mancebo Dorvigny,Ada Ivis Regalado Veloz

doi:10.33320/maced.pharm.bull.2017.63.02.004

Luz María Sánchez Perera, Betty Mancebo Dorvigny + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.33320/maced.pharm.bull.2017.63.02.004

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Abstract

Cuba has a high biodiversity and many plants are widely known and used in folk medicine and for commercial manufacturing of phytomedicines. However, many plants have not been studied for their pharmacological properties, particularly endemic plants. Two simple, inexpensive and rapid biological assays, inhibition of germination of tomato and lettuce seeds and toxicity on the brine shrimp A. salina, have been evaluated as prescreens for possible antitumor activity. Extracts of six plant species collected in Havana, Cuba were subjected to the brine shrimp lethality test and inhibition of seed germination in order to detect potential sources of novel cytotoxic and cytostatic antitumor compounds, respectively. The larvicidal activity, based on the percentage of larval mortality, was evaluated after 24 h exposure to the treatments. In the case of inhibition of seed germination the readings were made 48 h after exposure. Semi-quantitative phytochemical prospecting was done by color and precipitation reactions for chemical functional groups. All species tested showed some cytotoxic and cytostatic effects. Two extracts showed high cytotoxicity in the Artemia salina test, the methanol extract from flowers of Tithonia diversifolia (TD) with IC50 (Inhibitory concentration 50) or LD50 (Lethal doses 50) of 1.14 µg/mL and methanol extract of stems from Castela lucida (CL) with LD50 of 0.052 µg/mL. However, the more promising species was the Tabebuia hypoleuca (TH) with cytostatic effect superior of 65% and good cytotoxic effect with the leaf extract, with the prominent compound classes’ triterpenes, tannins, phenols, and alkaloids. Keywords: Cuban plants; cytotoxic; Artemia salina; cytostatic; seed germination; chemical compounds

Highlights

The search for new drugs which are plant-derived has been receiving renewed interest among researchers throughout the world in view of the need for discovering potent new drugs to combat the menace of drug resistant pathogenic microorganisms, as well as antitumor and anticancer agents (Hamidi et al, 2014).Despite the advance of modern drug discovery technologies, such as rational drug design, combinatorialL
All these species were collected in September 2009 in the Cuban National Botanical Garden, except T. diversifolia which was collected in Indio Hatuey, Matanzas
Ticona et al (1998) showed the importance of the combination of both tests to detect 100% of antitumor agent using in the tests the following known antitumor drugs: cytarabine, cisplatin, methotrexate, vincristine and fluorouracil, which were the base for the standardization and validation of the method in the previous application with plant extracts

Summary

Introduction

The search for new drugs which are plant-derived has been receiving renewed interest among researchers throughout the world in view of the need for discovering potent new drugs to combat the menace of drug resistant pathogenic microorganisms, as well as antitumor and anticancer agents (Hamidi et al, 2014).Despite the advance of modern drug discovery technologies, such as rational drug design, combinatorialL. The search for new drugs which are plant-derived has been receiving renewed interest among researchers throughout the world in view of the need for discovering potent new drugs to combat the menace of drug resistant pathogenic microorganisms, as well as antitumor and anticancer agents (Hamidi et al, 2014). Despite the advance of modern drug discovery technologies, such as rational drug design, combinatorial. Natural products typically have more rings and more chiral centers in their structures (Xiao et al, 2016)

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