Discovery of New Antimicrotubule Agents from Hawaiian, Polynesian, and Asian Ethnobotanical Sources.

摘要

An extract library of 79O extracts of higher plants has been prepared. Plants were selected for extraction based on ethnobotanical information indicating use in cancer therapy in the traditional medical systems of societies of the Pacific Rim. Extracts were tested for cytotoxicity in drug- sensitive and drug-resistant breast cancer cell lines and in mechanism-based as says for activity against the cytoskeleton, specifically microtubules and microfilaments. Selected extracts that showed activity in any of the assays were investigated by bioassay-guided fractionation to isolate the active principles and to establish their chemical structures.