Cytotoxicity of latex of Synadenium compactum var. rubrum S. Carter

Redae,Aynalem

Cytotoxicity of latex of Synadenium compactum var. rubrum S. Carter

Date

2023-02

Authors

Redae,Aynalem

Publisher

Addis Ababa University

Abstract

Cancer has become the second leading cause of death globally. While it was once predominately a disease affecting economically developed countries, it is now impacting developing nations more accounting for over half of all new cases worldwide. This has significant social and economic implications for countries like Ethiopia. One of the major drawbacks in treating cancer is the prevalence of drug resistance, along with the unbearable side effects and high costs associated with current treatments. Therefore, there is an urgent need to discover new, safe and effective drugs to combat this advancing disease. Natural products have proven to be a valuable source for the development of cancer drugs, as they make up over half of the currently used drugs. Traditional medicine attends to almost 80% of population’s primary health needs in Ethiopia. In this research, traditionally claimed cytotoxic latex and its fractions from Synadenium compactum var. rubrum S. Carter, a member of the Euphorbiaceae family, were evaluated for their cytotoxic activity. The latex and its ethyl acetate fraction showed potent cytotoxicity in an MTT assay against the ovarian cancer cell line A2780, with GI50 values as low as 1.98 ± 0.45 μl/ml and 0.911± 0.296 μl/ml, respectively. Additionally, the sub-fractions of the ethyl acetate fraction showed potent activity against histiocytic human lymphoma cell line U-937 in a Fluorometric microculture cytotoxicity assay (FMCA), with an SI value as low as 8% at a dose of 100 μl/ml. Through bioassay guided fractionation and preparative HPLC, a previously reported lathyrane diterpenoid known as 2-methylbutanoate tetraacetate synadenol was isolated from the most active ethyl acetate sub fraction. The structural elucidation of the compound was achieved using 1H NMR, 13C NMR, HMQC, HMBC and HRESIMS spectroscopic techniques. The finding of this study strongly supports the antitumor traditional claim of the latex of S. compactum.