Bioprospecting of medicinal plants with anticancer potential in Brazil: characterization and extraction methods

• Autor(a) principal: Cristina Porto Assumpção, Isabela
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Silva, Brunno Almeida de Carvalho e, Mendes, Marisa Fernandes, Assumpção, Isabela Cristina Porto
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista Fitos
• Texto Completo: https://revistafitos.far.fiocruz.br/index.php/revista-fitos/article/view/1251
• topic: Herbal medicines; Antiproliferative activity; Medicinal plants; Supercritical extraction; Bioprospecting; Fitoterápicos; Atividade antiproliferativa; Plantas medicinais; Extração supercrítica; Bioprospecção

Cancer is a worldwide public health issue, and the research has indicated that the number of new cases will reach 29.4 million by 2040. In addition, the uneven spread of the disease will show greater impact in low- and middle-income countries. In this context, the disease growth associated with the adverse effects of the treatments currently used reveals the urgency of evaluating alternative methods to reach this challenge. Thus, the use of medicinal plants is desirable, since they display fewer contraindications, due to the low antiproliferative effect on healthy tissues and high inhibition for several tumor lines. Under the Brazilian perspective, the bioprospecting of plants is promising, because of the high national biodiversity. Therefore, the aim of the present work was to evaluate research’s aspects of bioactive compounds extraction from plant sources, identifying the species, phytochemical profile, and most used extraction techniques. It can be concluded that the use of organic solvents is massive, which impairs the scale-up of the process, and may limit the effective use of phytotherapy’s from medicinal plants on an industrial scale.