Jornal de Toxicologia Clínica
Acesso livre

Abstrato

Cytotoxic and Anti-inflammatory Activities of Bursera species from Mexico

Macdiel Acevedo, Pablo Nuñez, Leticia Gónzalez-Maya, Alexandre CardosoTaketa and María Luisa Villarreal

Objective: Organic extracts from nine species (eleven populations) of the Bursera genus native to Mexico, were investigated for cytotoxic and anti-inflammatory activities. The influence of the cytotoxic plant extracts on cell cycle progression and apoptosis were also analyzed.

Materials and methods: Cytotoxic activity from B. ariensis (Kunth) McVaugh and Rzed. Kew Bull (two populations), B. bicolor Engl., B. lancifolia Engl., B. glabrifolia Engl. (two populations), B. fagaroides (La Llave) Rez., Calderón and Medina, B. linanoe (La Llave) Rez., Calderón and Medina, B. galeottiana Engl., B. kerberi Engl., and B. excelsa Engl. were evaluated by the sulforhodamine B protein staining assay against four carcinoma cell lines: KB (nasopharyngeal), HF-6 (colon), MCF-7 (breast), and PC-3 (prostate), as well as on HFS-30 fibroblast normal skin cell line. Chloroform extracts from B. ariensis (two populations), B. kerberi and B. galeottiana were added to PC-3 cells to analyze percentage of cells in G1/S and G2/M phases by flow cytometric analysis, while apoptosis was determined in a fluorescence microscope. In vivo anti-inflammatory experiments were conducted through the 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) induced ear edema in mice.

Results: With the exception of B. glabrifolia and B. excelsa, hexane extracts of all the collected plant species displayed selective cytotoxic activity in at least one cell line. For the chloroform extracts, only B. bicolor, B. kerberi, B. galeottiana, and B. fagaroides exhibited cytotoxic activity, while for the ethyl acetate extracts B. fagaroides was the only plant displaying cytotoxic effect. There was no cytotoxic activity detected with methanol extracts. While B. galeottiana showed an important effect in G2/M arrest, induced apoptosis in PC-3 cells was detected with B. ariensis (two populations) and B. galeottiana. Important anti-inflammatory activity similar to the control indomethacin was displayed by B. galeottiana, B. excelsa, and B. schlechtendalii.

Conclusion: Findings demonstrated that the studied species possess pharmacological potential qualities for developing plant medicines.