Composition of Secondary Metabolites in Mexican Plant Extracts and Their Antiproliferative Activity towards Cancer Cell Lines

Abstract

Background: Throughout the years humanity has used plants to treat different illnesses. Plants have several secondary metabolites such as phenol compounds, which have important biological activities. In this work, we evaluated the phytochemical screening, the phenol content and the antiproliferative activity of nine methanolic plants extract: Bucida buceras, Haemotoxylon brasiletto, Bursera hindsiana, Bursera microphylla, Ambrosia ambrosioides, Phoradendron californicum, Annona muricata, Morinda citrifolia, and Larrea tridentata, in murine cell lines: RAW 264.7 and L929; and human cell lines: A549, HeLa, 22Rv-1, BxPc-3, LS-180 and ARPE-19. Methods: The type metabolites in the sample were evaluated in a phytochemical screening. The phenols content present in the plant was evaluated by the Folin-Ciocalteu´s method and the antiproliferative activity wad determinate by MTT method, searching the IC50 value in each extract for each cell line. Results: The most abundant secondary metabolites in these plants were lactonic groups, saponins, phenols/tannins and flavonoids. The phenolic content fell in a range from 43.11 ± 6.22 to 827.74 ± 3.48 µgGAE/mg, the order from best to worst was: P. californicum (oak) > L. tridentata > B. buceras > H. brasiletto > B. microphylla > B. hindsiana > P. californicum (mesquite) > A. ambrosioides > A. muricata > M. citrifolia. While the better extracts in antiproliferative activity were: A. muricata, B. buceras, L. tridentata, H. brasiletto (range from 13.35 ± 0.74 to 163.73 ± 8.42 µg/mL), showing IC50 value similars to the cisplatin drug in the different cell lines. Conclusions: In this study was possible observe that the richest plants in secondary metabolites were B. buceras, H. brasiletto, B. hindsiana, M. citrifolia and P. californicum. The plant extract with the highest phenolic content was P. californicum of oak. While in the antiproliferative activity the best extracts were: A. muricata and L. tridentata in murine and human cell lines, and also B. buceras and H. brasiletto only in the case of human cell lines.