Species of the genus Simarouba have been studied because of its anti-malarial, anti-inflammatory, anti-leukemic, anti-feedant and antiviral activities. A group of highly oxygenated terpenes called quassinoids have been isolated from species of the Simarouba genus and are thought to be responsible for its therapeutic properties. We hypothesize that Simarouba tulae, an endemic plant species, are a natural source rich on quassinoid compounds and, thus, will inhibit growth of different cancer cells. The objective of this study is to test the biological activity of the secondary metabolites from Simarouba tulae against, ovarian (A2780, SKOV3), breast (MCF-7, MDA-MB-435 or -231), prostate (PC-3, LNCAP), and neuroblastoma (SH-SY5Y) cells. The leaves were extracted with a mixture of CH2Cl2-MeOH (1:1). The resulting crude extract was suspended in water and extracted with solvents of different polarities. The extracts were preliminary screened using the brine shrimp lethality test. Among all extracts analyzed, the chloroform extract was the most active showing a LC50 value of 157 μg/ml. This extract was chromatographed on Si gel with a 5% of methanol in chloroform to obtain 7 fractions. Fraction 3 was purified by size exclusion chromatography, column chromatography and HPLC reversed phase to afford 11 mg of the quassinoid Simalikalactone D. This compound showed in vitro cytotoxicity with GI50 = 0.1 µM in MDA-MB-231 metastatic cell line and 39.8 μM against neuroblastoma cells. Therefore, this finding demonstrates the possibility of the presence of other quassinoid compounds as constituents of the chloroform and other extracts. Based in our results we concluded that this plant showed anticancer activity and merit a closer investigation.

Bioguided fractionation and isolation of chemical constituents of the chloroform extract from the Puerto Rican plant Simarouba tulae

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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