Rutaceae, Myrtaceae, Apiaceae, Rubiaceae, and Malvaceae from Puerto Rico. Additionally, two studies about the cytotoxic activity of some Puerto Rican plants has been documented. The first was reported by Guerrero and Robledo in 1993.8
In this work, six crude extracts of the
Euphorbiaceae, Solanaceae, Myrsinaceae, Polygonaceae, and Polygalaceae families showed LC50 values below 200 µg/mL in the Artemia Salina Test, indicating the potential presence of bioactive compounds. No isolation of bioactive compounds was reported later. In the second report by Chavez et al. tested the dichloromethane portion of the ethanol extract in a concentration of 1000 µg/mL using the brine shrimp assay. 9
The extracts with a LC50 ≤ 1000
µg/mL were further tested against Hela and CHO cells. The extracts from Annona glabra, Simarouba tulae, Tithonia diversifolia, Dendropanax arboreous, Piper jacquemontanium, Annona montana, Polygala hecatantha were active in both assays. These previous reports document the biological importance of secondary metabolites from Puerto Rican plants as potential antitumour agents. The isolation and characterization of the metabolites responsible for the biological activities is needed, as well as the study of some other species from families that have produced bioactive compounds. In the present study, seven species of native and endemic plants present in Puerto Rico were studied. These were: Canella winterana, Pimenta racemosa, Guaiacum officinale, Croton discolor, Gotzea elegans, Thouinia striata and Simarouba tulae, Canella winterana is a tree found naturally in Florida and the Caribbean. Some important constituents of this plant are monoterpenes like canellal (1)10, eugenol (2)11, eucalyptol (3)11, and drimane sesquiterpenoids like 9α-hydrocinnamolide (4)12 (Figure 1). The sesquiterpenoids exhibited phototoxic activity in a Lemna minor bioassay13. The drimane sesquiterpenoids isolated from other species of the Canellaceae family are known for their broad antifeedant,
© COM/MPO
3