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Randia aculeata (Rubiaceae) is a medicinal plant distributed in the state of Jalisco, Mexico. In folk medicine it is used to counteract the effects produced by the bite of snakes and other poisonous insects. However, there are no reports of new alternatives to use the plant in a sustainable way. The main objective of this study was to establish a cell culture of R. aculeata, evaluate its anti-inflammatory and antibacterial potential and determine the phytochemical profile. In addition, we determine the total phenolics content and antioxidant activity of methanol extracts. Cell suspension cultures (CSC) was established with 2.0 mg/L 1-naphthaleneacetic acid and 0.5 mg/L 6-furfurylaminopurine in MS culture medium. CSC produced 13.77 ± 0.49 g/L biomass in dry weight at 36 days of culture. GC-MS analysis showed high amounts of β-sitosterol for hexane (HE-L: 22.02 ± 0.44%) and dichloromethane (DE-L: 19.69 ± 0.49%) leaf extracts. Hexane CSC extract (HE-CSC) stood out for containing high amount of palmitic acid (43.95 ± 0.02%) and dichloromethane extract (DE-CSC) had mainly palmitic acid (30.16 ± 2.14%) and vanillic acid (10.23 ± 0.34%). The methanol CSC extract (ME-CSC) showed antioxidant activity with an IC50 value of 16.49 ± 0.25 µg/mL, which was almost equal to the methanol leaf extract (ME-L) that showed a IC50 of 14.37 ± 0.20 µg/mL. The HE-CSC and DE-CSC were the only ones that showed inhibition against S. aureus, S. aureus-MRSA, S. typhimurium and E. coli. However, S. aureus was the most susceptible with HE-CSC (MIC = 62.5 µg/mL) and DE-CSC (MIC = 125 µg/mL). The HE-CSC exhibited the highest percentages of inhibition of NO production (36.88 ± 4.35%) at 40 µg/mL in RAW 264.7 macrophages, which was slightly lower than indomethacin (47.45 ± 7.41%) tested at 30 µg/mL. This extract was also the most effective against bacteria. The results suggest that cell culture extracts of R. aculeata may be a sustainable source for obtaining bioactive compounds.

Bursera copallifera(DC) Bullock (Burseraceae) is a plant species used in folk medicine for the treatment of inflammation (bronchitis, cough). The dichloromethane-methanol extract (DML) of B. copallifera leaves was found to possess important antiproliferative and anti-inflammatory activities. In order to further correlate these activities with the phytochemical components, the bioactivity-guided fractionation of the DML extract allowed the isolation of an active fraction which was constituted of five compounds characterized as as luteolin-3'-O-(3''-O-E-p-coumaroyl)-α-L-rhamnopyranoside (1), luteolin-3'-O-(2''-O-E-p-coumaroyl)-α-L-rhamnopyranoside (2), a-amyrin (3), 3-epilupeol (4) and stigmasterol (5). Among the five isolated constituents, the triterpenes 3 and 4, and the sterol 5 have been already well known by their anti-inflammatory properties. Flavone 2 (Luteolin-3'-O-(2''-O-E-p-coumaroyl)-α-L-rhamnopyranoside)was responsible for the antiproliferative activity, showing in vitro cytotoxic activity against MCF-7 human cancer cell line with IC50 value of 13.9 µM. By the other hand flavone (1) exhibited COX-1 inhibition (IC50 = 93 mM). Flavone 1, together with the triterpenes 3 and 4 were the responsible for inhibiting TPA-induced inflammation by inhibit COX-1 enzyme. Therefore, these results support the traditional use of the infusion made with the leaves of B. copallifera as an anti-inflammatory agent.