Browsing by Author "Castro, María Ángeles"
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- Atividade citotóxica in vitro de plantas da flora africana: revisão da literaturaPublication . Canga, Isabel; Vita, Pedro; Oliveira, Ana Isabel; Pinho, Cláudia; Castro, María ÁngelesEm África é visível um aumento no número de casos de cancro relacionados com a idade, densidade populacional, e aumento de fatores de risco. No entanto, apesar deste problema crescente, pouco tem sido feito no combate à doença devido à falta de recursos e aparecimento de outros problemas de saúde. Nos últimos anos, algumas plantas medicinais africanas têm sido estudadas quanto ao seu potencial citotóxico . Recolha dos estudos in vitro de avaliação da atividade citotóxica de plantas africanas, utilizando diferentes linhas celulares cancerígenas.
- Ethnopharmacological study of medicinal plants from the Cuanza norte province (ANGOLA)Publication . Canga, Isabel; Vita, Pedro; Oliveira, Ana Isabel; Castro, María Ángeles; Pinho, CláudiaStudies on African medicinal plants have been limited to some geographically areas, and even though more than 5400 medicinal plants are recognized and documented in the country, other valuable medicinal plant species have not been studied or fully characterized. Therefore, ethnopharmacological studies are important for protecting and documenting traditional knowledge associated with the medical use of biodiversity.
- In vitro cytotoxic activity of african plants: a reviewPublication . Canga, Isabel; Vita, Pedro; Oliveira, Ana Isabel; Castro, María Ángeles; Pinho, CláudiaIn African countries, cancer not only is a growing problem, but also a challenge because available funding and resources are limited. Therefore, African medicinal plants play a significant role in folk medicine and some of them are traditionally used for the treatment of cancer. The high mortality rate and adverse effects associated with cancer treatments have encouraged the search for novel plant-based drugs, thus, some African plants have been studied in recent years as a source of molecules with proven cytotoxicity. This review aims to discuss the cytotoxic activity, in vitro, of African plant crude extracts against cancer cell lines. For the period covered by this review (2017–2021) twenty-three articles were found and analyzed, which included a total of 105 plants, where the main cell lines used were those of breast cancer (MCF-7 and MDA-MBA-231) and colorectal cancer (HCT-116 and Caco-2), which are among the most prevalent cancers in Africa. In these studies, the plant crude extracts were obtained using different solvents, such as ethanol, methanol, or water, with variable results and IC50 values ranging from <20 µg/mL to >200 µg/mL. Water is the preferred solvent for most healers in African countries, however, in some studies, the aqueous extracts were the least potent. Apoptosis and the induction of cell cycle arrest may explain the cytotoxic activity seen in many of the plant extracts studied. Considering that the criteria of cytotoxicity activity for the crude extracts, as established by the American National Cancer Institute (NCI), is an IC50 < 30 μg/mL, we conclude that many extracts from the African flora could be a promising source of cytotoxic agents.
- Pharmacological evaluation of plant extracts from the province of Cuanza Norte (Angola)Publication . Canga, Isabel; Vita, Pedro; Castro, María Ángeles; Pinho, CláudiaAngola has an important socio-cultural diversity and is one of the richest floristic regions of the world. Toperform an ethnopharmacological study in the Province of Cuanza Norte (Angola) and a pharmacological evaluation of African plant extracts. The field work was conducted from December 2018 to January 2019. Medicinal plants were listed along with their popular name, traditional use, part used, and method of preparation. In the experimental study, it was used aqueous and methanolic extracts from Adansonia digitata, Garcinia kola, and Gardenia ternifolia. Total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), and in vitroantioxidant assayswere performed. Also,cytotoxic activity against HepG2 cell line, and antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, were assessed. For the ethnopharmacological study, a total of 131 species of medicinal plants were cited by traditional healers. Mukumbi (Lannea welwitschii), Santa Maria (Chenopodium ambrosioides) and Ditumbata (Boerhavia difusa) were the most cited species, following by Embondeiro (Adansonia digitata). Leaves were the most frequently material used, and maceration the major form of plants preparation. The main categories of use were infectious and parasitic diseases; undefined pains and illness; diseases of the digestive system; and endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic diseases. For in vitro antioxidant assays, IC50 values ranged from 6.1±0.1 to 846.0±20.9 μg/mL. G. kolamethanolic extract showed the best TPC (131.4±5.7 mgGAE/g) and A. digitatashowed the best TFC (46.0±5.0 mgQE/g). Methanolic extracts showed higher TPC, TFC and antioxidant activity in general, compared to aqueous extracts. Methanolic extracts of G. kolaand G. ternifolia had the lowest MIC value of 0.625 mg/mL against Gram-positive S. aureus. Regarding cytotoxic activity, for HepG2, A. digitata and G. kolaextracts presented no cytotoxicity. These results provide preliminary knowledge about the analyzed medicinal plants and highlight therapeutic potentialities of African flora.