Cytotoxic compounds from aerial organs of Xanthium strumarium L.

JANET PILOTO FERRERA*#, IRIS CATIANAZAMPINIB#, ANA SOLEDAD CUELLOB, MARBELIS FRANCISCOA, AYLEMA ROMEROC, DAYANAVALDIVIAA, MARIA GONZALEZA, CARLOS SALASD, ANGEL SANCHEZ LAMARE AND MARÍA INÉS ISLA

NATURAL PRODUCT COMMUNICATIONS

NATURAL PRODUCTS INC

Lugar: Westerville, Ohio; Año: 2016 vol. 11 p. 371 - 374

1934-578X

X. strumarium L., the main species of genus Xanthium is ubiquitously distributed. The aim of this study was to determine the cytotoxic effect of aerial organs of X. strumarium grown in Cuba, against cancer cell lines and the isolation of compounds potentially responsible for this activity. Initially, an ethanol partitioning procedure yielded an extract (XSE) that was subsequently fractionated with chloroform resulting in a XSCF fraction. Both, XSE and XSCF fractions exhibited cytotoxic effect on MDAMB-231, MCF7, A549 and CT26 cell lines by using the MTT assay. Above all, the XSCF fraction was more active than XSE. For this reason, XSCF was subsequently fractionated in silica gel chromatography and the active fractions submitted to semipreparative HPLC for isolation of bioactive compounds. Six sub-fractions (SF1 to SF6) were recovered. Sub-fractions 3 and 6 were the most active on each assayed cell line, while sub-fractions 4 and 5 were only active against A549 and CT26 cell lines. In each case, sub-fraction 6 showed the strongest inhibitory effect. The HPLC-DAD fingerprint of sub-fraction 6 showed a single peak that was identified by GC-MS as (-) Spathulenol, a sesquiterpene reported as antitumoral