New plant sources of the anti-cancer alkaloid, camptothecine from the Icacinaceae taxa, India

Abstract In this study, the production of camptothecine and its derivatives, in thirteen species of the family Icacinaceae, namely, Apodytes dimidiata , Codiocarpus andamanicus , Gomphandra comosa , Gomphandra coriacea , Gomphandra polymorpha , Gomphandra tetrandra , Iodes cirrhosa , Iodes hookeriana , Miquelia dentata , Miquelia kleinii , Natsiatum herpeticum , Pyrenacantha volubilis and Sarcostigma kleinii is reported. Seeds of M. dentata were found to produce the highest content of camptothecine (1.0–1.4% by dry weight of seeds). Full scan LC–MS and ESI-MS/MS analysis of M. dentata revealed, besides camptothecine, a number of other derivatives, namely, 10-hydroxycamptothecine, 9-methoxycamptothecine, 20-deoxycamptothecine. Crude extract preparations of the seeds of M. dentata were effective against a breast cancer cell line (IC 50  = 3.82 μg/ml for MDA MB273 cell lines) and two ovarian cancer cell lines (IC 50  = 2.8 μg/ml for NCI/ADR-RES and 4.5 μg/ml for SKOV). These results are the first reports of camptothecine and its derivatives in these species and offer rich alternative plant sources for the anticancer compound, camptothecine.