Natural anthraquinones: acute toxicity evaluation in vivo.

COMINI L., FERNANDEZ I., MILLA L., NUÑEZ MONTOYA S., CABRERA J., RIVAROLA V.

Palermo

Congreso; XVII CONGRESO ITALO-LATINOAMERICANO DE ETNOMEDICINA.; 2008

Soc. Italo-Latinoamericana de Etnomedicina (SILAE).

Rubiadin (1) and soranjidiol (2), are two anthraquinones (AQs) isolated from the phototoxic shrub Heterophyllaea pustulata, popularly known in Argentina as "cegadera", because it produces blindness and dermatitis on animals that ingest the aerial parts of this plant and are exposed simultaneously to sun light. In addition, we demonstrated that these AQs are photosensitizers, with the ability to produce both singlet oxygen and superoxide anion under radiation condition. Considering that an important research line studies photosensitizers compounds and their potential uses in photodynamic therapy, especially in antitumoral therapy, we started to evaluate the photodynamic activity of these two metabolites "in vitro" against a human breast carcinoma cell line (MCF-7c3), obtaining satisfactory results. Therefore, the next step will be to evaluate their photodynamic activity "in vivo".