Molecular bioprospecting of plant extracts: Experience report of the BIOPROS/UFV group in the search for antitumor compounds

Abstract

This manuscript discusses the experience of the research group BIOPROS (Molecular Bioprospecting in the Sustainable Use of Biodiversity) from the Federal University of Viçosa in the field of bioprospecting. We describe our experience on the search for antitumor compounds from the collection of extracts of native tree species from the Atlantic Forest biome. Presenting an interdisciplinary approach, integrating knowledge of forestry engineering, bioinformatics and natural products chemistry, the bioprospecting research of the BIOPROS group has innovated in the generation of pharmacochemical knowledge of native species of the Atlantic Forest. For the composition of the extract library a total of 220 plant species distributed in 57 botanical families and 140 genera were identified. 196 extracts from 49 plant species were produced; all of them evaluated for cytotoxic activity. By showing the process of obtaining a promising antitumor activity withanolides compounds from Athenaea velutina, a species hitherto little known to science, this manuscript shows our sequence of methodological steps used to unravel bioactive natural products from fragments of Atlantic Forest. The research follows the premises of the Convention on Biological Diversity, regarding the creation of strategies for the sustainable use of biodiversity.

Seaweeds and Corals from the Brazilian Coast: Review on Biotechnological Potential and Environmental Aspects

“…More accurate chemical information about the secondary metabolites of Brazilian seaweeds is needed, and might represent a challenge to the field of seaweed-derived natural products in Brazil. Although the low number of isolated compounds, screening, and prospection studies are crucial to opening new paths and represent a powerful tool for the conservation of species, they often describe new organisms and their chemotaxonomic features [203]. Additionally, these studies can guide the prioritization of target organisms with aggregated biotechnological potential.…”

Parkia from Cerrado: phytochemical bioprospection, toxicity and in vitro bioactivities of bark and flower extracts

“…Currently, there is no analytical technique capable of measuring all metabolites in a single experiment (Pilon et al, 2020), so it is necessary to build libraries of extracts from biodiversity (Almeida et al, 2022;Lowell et al, 2015). Thus, according to Bajkacz and Adamek (2017), organic solvent extractions are still the best choice for extraction and detection of these metabolites due to their efficiency and compatibility with the main analytical platforms, such as chromatography.…”