Investigation of Vietnamese plants for potential anticancer agents

Abstract

Higher plants continue to afford humankind with many new drugs, for a variety of disease types. In this review, recent phytochemical and biological progress is presented for part of a collaborative multi-institutional project directed towards the discovery of new antitumor agents. The specific focus is on bioactive natural products isolated and characterized structurally from tropical plants collected in Vietnam. The plant collection, identification, and processing steps are described, and the natural products isolated from these species are summarized with their biological activities.

Antidiarrheal activity of crude methanolic root extract of Idigofera spicata Forssk.(Fabaceae)

“…Likewise, flavnoids are also known intestinal motility and water and electrolyte secretion inhibitors and even they do have antioxidant activity which may have a role in suppressing the catalytic activity of different enzymes including enzymes for the synthesis of prostaglandins [ 22 , 47 ]. Parallel to this fact it is reported that Indigofera spicata do have antioxidant and cytotoxic activity [ 17 , 18 ] that may have a role in its antidiarrheal mechanism of action. Furthermore, steroids may also enhance the absorption of hydroelectrolytes across the intestinal lumen [ 23 , 48 ].…”

Discovery of Anticancer Agents of Diverse Natural Origin

“…The tropical rainforests include many of the 25 biodiversity `hotspots' that cover only 1.4% of the world's surface while containing nearly half of all vascular plant species (36). Our project team has collected plants previously from different tropical rainforests, with the intention of finding new anticancer agents, including in the Dominican Republic (37), Ecuador (37), Indonesia (37), Peru (37), Vietnam (38), and most recently Laos. Access to plant species in foreign countries must be gained through the development of detailed intellectual property agreements as a result of the provisions of the 1992 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (39) and the 2010 Nagoya Protocol (40).…”

“…Once an appropriate plant-collection agreement with a source country has been mutually signed, the NAPRALERT® database housed at UIC is used to aid in the selection of plant genera found in a given country for which there are relatively few phytochemical reports (38). It is worthwhile collecting more than one plant part from a given plant acquisition ( e.g .…”

“…In a retrospective analysis of over 2500 plant acquisitions collected by our group in six tropical and semi-tropical locations, it was determined that roots and other below-ground organs tend to produce more potently cytotoxic extracts than those prepared from the aerial plant parts (37). During the period 2008–2011, over 800 primary plant collections for our program project were obtained from Vietnam, with the plant diversity available optimized by collecting species in different climatic zones, occurring in the north, central, and southern regions of the country (38). Dried plant material or locally produced plant extracts are shipped to the U.S. for subsequent phytochemical and biological studies.…”

Potential Anticancer Agents Characterized from Selected Tropical Plants

“…11 Technical progress made by our group program project has appeared in the literature periodically. [12][13][14][15][16] In the present contribution, we focus on recent progress of characterization of anticancer lead compounds from selected higher plants collected in the Dominican Republic, Indonesia, and Vietnam as part of this program project collaboration. The plant species from our work referred to below were collected sustainably by the University of Illinois at Chicago, in accordance with existing international treaty requirements, as explained in detail in a recent book chapter.…”