Anti-tumour Screening of Brazilian Plants

摘要

Organic and aqueous extracts of 145 Brazilian plants (538 extracts) from 34 families were evaluated for anti-tumour activity against the human tumour cell lines HT29 and NCI-H460. Of the extracts tested, 117 (22%) demonstrated cyto-toxicity against one or both of the cell lines at a concentration of 100mug/ml. Of special interest are the families Anacar-diaceae, Annonaceae, Asteraceae, Celestraceae, Legumi-nosae (Fabaceae), Meliaceae and Myrtaceae, which contain a high proportion of active species. On the basis of these results we are further examining the cytotoxic species, with the objective of isolating and identifying the active phyto-chemicals. These results also confirm the continuing importance of natural product screening models, alongside targeted drug development, in the discovery of new anti-neoplastic pharmacophores.