Towards the isolation and identification of the bioactive principles with potential anticancer properties from an African plant

Ismail L. Jones, Edem K. Onyameh, Chandrashekhar Voshavar, Barbara A. Bricker, Seth Y Ablordeppey

Florida A&M University College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Cancer remains a prominent but deadly disease that plagues the healthcare of communities. In 2023, 1,958,310 new cancer cases and 609, 820 cancer deaths are projected to occur in the United States, increasing the importance for researchers to discover novel drugs for cancer therapy. Despite the significant progress in anticancer therapy, chemotherapeutic agents are often ineffective and associated with toxicity and drug resistance. For years, the strategy of screening natural products (Plants, Animals, Marine Organisms, and Microbes) has been used by researchers owing to their chemical diversity and reservoir of bioactive molecules. Compounds derived from natural sources provide a promising approach due to their safety, low cytotoxicity, and remedial potency/efficacy in treating various cancers. Ziziphus Mauritiana (ZM), also known as Indian jujube is a tropical fruit tree species belonging to the family Rhamnaceae known to have several medicinal uses and all parts of the plant have been used in traditional medicine in tropical countries. In the present study, we investigated the bark of Ziziphus Mauritiana to extract active components using polarity based solvent extraction methods. Solvent extracts of Ziziphus Mauritiana bark were evaluated for their cytotoxicity’s in representative TNBC and pancreatic cancer cells (MDA-MB-231 and MIA PaCa-2). The ethyl acetate extract fractions with significant cytotoxicity were further subjected to separation using flash chromatographic and HPLC methods to obtain the potential compound. The isolated and purified compound was then analyzed for possible structure elucidation using NMR, Mass spectroscopic analysis.

This work was financially supported by an NIGMS Endowment grant in support of an Eminent Scholar Chair in Biomedical Sciences to SYA. The research was also partially supported with funding from the U.S. Department of Education, Title III Part B, Strengthening Historically Black Graduate Institutions Programs (HBGI), awarded to Florida A&M University" and an RCMI grant # NIMHD U54 MD 007582.