Bonellia albiflora: A Mayan Medicinal Plant That Induces Apoptosis in Cancer Cells

Abstract

Few studies have been carried out on the medical flora of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula in search for new therapeutic agents, in particular against cancer. In this paper, we evaluated the cytotoxic potential of the extract of Bonellia albiflora, a plant utilized in the traditional Mayan medicine for treatment of chronic injuries of the mouth. We carried out the methanolic extracts of different parts of the plant by means of extraction with the Soxhlet equipment. We conducted liquid-liquid fractions on each extract with solvents of increasing polarity. All extracts and fractions were evaluated for cytotoxic activity versus four human cancer cell lines and one normal cell line through a tetrazolium dye reduction (MTT) assay in 96-well cell culture plates. The methanolic root-bark extract possessed much greater cytotoxic activity in the human oropharyngeal cancer cell line (KB); its hexanic fraction concentrated the active metabolites and induced apoptosis with the activation of caspases 3 and 8. The results demonstrate the cytotoxic potential of the B. albiflora hexanic fraction and substantiate the importance of the study of the traditional Mayan medicinal plants.

Antiproliferative and Antiestrogenic Activities of Bonediol an Alkyl Catechol fromBonellia macrocarpa

“…This study evaluated for the first time the activity of bonediol on binding to the estrogen receptors, inhibition of the Shh pathway, and activation of Nrf2-ARE signaling. Previous work demonstrated the potential antiproliferative effect of bonediol [ 29 ] and that this compound has no significant cytotoxic activity [ 34 ]. Furthermore, bonediol does not induce apoptosis at low doses [ 34 ].…”

“…Previous work demonstrated the potential antiproliferative effect of bonediol [ 29 ] and that this compound has no significant cytotoxic activity [ 34 ]. Furthermore, bonediol does not induce apoptosis at low doses [ 34 ]. We explored here the antiproliferative potential of bonediol against three prostate cancer lines (hormone sensitive (LNCaP), hormone insensitive (PC-3), and high metastatic hormone insensitive PC-3M) and the possible pharmacologic mechanisms.…”

Actividad Antioxidante y Antiproliferativa de Seis Plantas Medicinales del Noroeste de México

“…Este comportamiento también lo presenta el extracto metanólico de las partes aéreas de la misma planta, pero con valores de IC 50 más elevados. Estudios de actividad antiproliferativa realizadas sobre Bonellia albiflora (Jacquinia albiflora), reportan, que el extracto metanólico de hojas po-see una IC 50 de 47.05 mg/mL en HeLa (Moo-Puc et al, 2013), lo que demuestra que su actividad en esta LC es mayor que el extracto de partes aéreas de J. macrocarpa ssp. pungens, pero con valores próximos a los observados para el extracto de las cáscaras del fruto.…”

Elicitation induced flavonoids, phenolic constituents, antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of Artemisia monosperma callus cultures

“…The criteria used to categorize the activity of EEC.Y2 against human cancer cell lines based on the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) which proposed that crude extracts with potential cytotoxic activity are those presenting IC 50 of ≤ 30 μg/mL (Baravalia et al, 2012;Moo-puc et al, 2013). The criteria was modified from these of Geran et al (1972) as follows: IC 50 ≤ 20 µg/mL is highly active, IC 50 = 21 -200 µg/mL is moderately active, IC 50 = 201 -500 µg/mL is weakly active and IC 50 > 501 µg/mL is inactive (Srisawat et al, 2013).…”