Rhodostemonodaphne is a neotropical genus of lauroid shrubs and trees. In Colombia there are ten species.
As part of our research on Lauraceae plants, the present study is directed to the
phytochemical exploration, and cytotoxicity and antileishmanial evaluation of Rhodostemonodaphne crenaticupula Madriñan. Leaves, wood and bark of this plant were collected in Boyacá, Colombia.
Plant material was separately dried, grounded and macerated with ethanol. The chemical
profile was determined by UFLC-ESI-MS analyses of the obtaining extracts. They were
also tested against promastigotes of Leishmania panamensis, J774 murine macrophages and THP-1 monocytes in order to examine the extracts' ability
and security. Different chromatographic techniques resulted in the isolation of six
aporphine alkaloids from the ethanolic extract from leaves, whose chemical structures
were elucidated by spectroscopic methods. The chemical characterization of the remaining
ethanolic extracts was achieved with UFLC-ESI-MS techniques, using the isolated compounds
as standards. All ethanolic extracts were very rich in aporphine-related compounds,
indicating that these kind of metabolites might be the bioactive compounds in the
antileishmanial activity (EC50= 5 – 50 µg/mL). In order to support this, isolated alkaloids are currently being
evaluated against parasites. Bark extract from R. crenaticupula was found to be the most potent antileishmanial. Additionally, extracts exhibited
low cytotoxicity against J774 and THP-1 cell lines (IC50= 100 – 200 µg/mL) and showed good selectivity indexes (SI > 5). A bioguided fractionation
leading to obtain the bioactive aporphine alkaloids is currently in process.
