226 methanol and water extracts representing 74 mainly native plant species found in Amazonas State, Brazil, were tested at a standard concentration of 500 μg/mL for lethality towards larvae of the brine shrimp species Artemia franciscana.

Ethanol, methanol and water extracts representing mostly native plant species found in the Amazon region were prepared, respectively, by maceration, continuous liquid-solid extraction and infusion, followed by evaporation and freeze-drying. The freeze-dried extracts were tested for lethality toward Aedes aegypti larvae at test concentrations of 500 µg / mL. In general, methanol extracts exhibited the greatest larvicidal activity. The following 7 methanol extracts of (the parts of) the indicated plant species were the most active, resulting in 100 % mortality in A. aegypti larvae: Tapura amazonica Poepp. KEY WORDS

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This work is part of a larger screening program, which seeks to discover new antitumor plants and compounds from the Brazilian Amazon. In a prescreen of stem and leaf extracts of Tachia grandiflora Maguire & Weaver (Gentianaceae) based on the SRB method, leaf methanol and ethanol extracts showed appreciable cytotoxicity in human breast (MCF-7) and colon (HCT-8) tumor cell lines. Liquid-liquid partitioning of the leaf ethanol extract yielded hexane, chloroform, butanol, and water-methanol fractions. Only the hexane and chloroform fractions were active, inhibiting murine melanoma (B-16) and HCT-8 cells. The chloroform fraction suffered sequential column chromatography on silica gel using different eluent systems and yielded a number of very active subfractions. In all, 25 fractions and subfractions were tested, and 10 exhibited high growth inhibition of HCT-8, and two of these presented strong inhibition of murine melanoma (B-16) cells. The most active subfractions were tested against five tumor cell lines (leukemia CEM and HL-60, as well as the three used previously) using the MTT assay, and four fractions demonstrated significant cytotoxicity based on IC 50 . Cell lysis was discarded as a possible mechanism for in vitro cytotoxicity given that these fractions did not exhibit hemolytic activity. The greatest antiproliferative potential was found in the second (two samples) and third generation (two samples) chromatographic subfractions of the chloroform fraction (obtained from partitioning of the ethanol extract). These subfractions proved to be complex mixtures from which no pure substance could be isolated after further chromatographic separations.

Santos, E.V.M. Quantitative structure activity relationships studies for antimicrobial activity of para and meta substituted N,N-[(dimethylaminoethyl) benzoates chlorides evaluated against Saccharomyces cerevisiae (BY4741) and Escherichia coli (DH5α α α α). 2009. (256p.