Cytotoxic and Antitumoral Activities of Compounds Isolated from Cucurbitaceae Plants

The WHO says that annual cases of cancer will increase from 14 million in 2012 to 22 million in the next two decades. Cancer is the second cause of death in the world; in 2015, it caused 8.8 million deaths. On the other hand, it is necessary to consider that 70% of the total deaths due to this disease occur in developing countries, who have the least resources to acquire the drugs of choice for the treatment of this disease. Although there are treatments and these are effective, there are currently cases of resistance to drugs used to treat this disease, which has led to the search for new sources of drugs or compounds effective against the cancer being active; plants are the possible sources to achieve this. Cucurbitaceae is a family of plants widely distributed on the planet which has been used traditionally for the treatment of this disease and from they have been isolated different cucurbitanes. These compounds possess a wide biological activity, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, or cytotoxic and antitumoral effects. The aim of this review is to present 51 cucurbitacin compounds and 2 with different structures isolated from Cucurbitaceae plants with cytotoxic or antitumoral activity

Cytotoxic and Antimicrobial Activities of Quinones Isolated from Different Organism

Cancer is a group of related diseases in which there is uncontrolled cell growth that spreads to the surrounding tissues and damages them. Cancer remains the disease with the leading cause of death worldwide, and incidence and mortality are increasing rapidly. The main cancer treatment is chemotherapy; however, the compounds used in this treatment have serious side effects for this reason, is necessary to develop new therapeutic strategies. Natural products are an excellent pharmacological alternative for the treatment of cancer and infections. In search of new compounds with cytotoxic and antimicrobial activity, we have found quinones that have a high pharmacological potency in the treatment of these health problems. Quinones are an aromatic system of one or diketone and are mainly isolated from plants, fungi, bacteria, and other organisms. These compounds are secondary metabolites derived from the oxidation of hydroquinones; they include benzoquinones, naphthoquinones, anthraquinones, and polyquinones. This review summarizes the activity of 152 anticancer and 30 antimicrobial quinones

Anti-Inflammatory Activity and Composition of Senecio salignus Kunth

We investigated the anti-inflammatory activity of Senecio salignus. This medicinal plant is often used in Mexico for the treatment of fever and rheumatism. Chloroform and methanol extracts of the plant were tested on 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate- (TPA-) induced edema in mice ears. The methanol extract of the plant inhibited edema by 36±4.4% compared with the control, while the chloroform extract exhibited an even greater level of inhibition (64.1%). The chloroform extract was then fractionated, and the composition of the active fraction was determined by GC-MS. The anti-inflammatory activity of this fraction was then tested on TPA-induced ear edema in mice, and we found that the active fraction could inhibit edema by 46.9%. The anti-inflammatory effect of the fraction was also tested on carrageenan-induced paw edema in rats at doses of 100 mg/kg; a 58.9±2.8% reduction of the edema was observed 4 h after administration of carrageenan, and the effect was maintained for 5 h

Kramecyne — A New Anti-inflammatory Compound Isolated from Krameria cytisoides

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Antidiarrheal Activity of 19-Deoxyicetexone Isolated from Salvia ballotiflora Benth in Mice and Rats

The antidiarrheal properties of 19-deoxyicetexone, a diterpenoid isolated from Salvia ballotiflora were evaluated on castor oil-, arachidonic acid (AA)- and prostaglandin (PGE2)-induced diarrhea in rodent models. The structure of 19-deoxyicetexone was determined by X-ray crystallography, mass spectrometry (EI-MS), as well as ultraviolet (UV-Vis), infrared (FT-IR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopies. This compound significantly and dose-dependently reduced frequency of stooling in castor oil-induced diarrhea, and at dose of 25 mg/kg it also inhibited diarrhea induced with AA, while it had no effect on PGE2-induced diarrhea. This compound at doses of 25 mg/kg also diminished castor oil-induced enteropooling and intestinal motility, and inhibited the contraction of the rats’ ileum induced by carbachol chloride at a concentration of 100 µg/mL. 19-Deoxyicetexone did not present acute toxicity at doses of 625 mg/kg. Its antidiarrheal activity may be due to increased reabsorption of NaCl and water and inhibition of the release of prostaglandins, gastrointestinal motility and fluid accumulation in the intestinal tracts of rats. These findings suggest that 19-deoxyicetexone may be used in the treatment of diarrhea, although more studies must be carried out to confirm this