Selection methodology with scoring system: application to Mexican plants producing podophyllotoxin related lignans

As most anticancer drugs are derived from natural sources, the screening of local medicinal flora should be considered a primary step in the search for new sources for antineoplastic agents. In Mexico, more than 6000 medicinal plant species are used for the treatment of various diseases, including cancer. A multifactorial plant selection method, employing various criteria was designed and applied in order to select alternative sources of podophyllotoxin lignan analogues. For each criterion (chemotaxonomy, traditional medical uses and published scientific data), an arbitrary score system was ascribed to the species and the sum of these enabled us to compare potential candidates. The resulting selected plants were tested for cytotoxic activity and the compounds responsible for this activity were evaluated by liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy (LC-MS). Around 50 species from the Mexican flora were initially considered. From these, six species were selected by referring to the results from the scoring system and these were then collected. Three extracts were evaluated as being highly cytotoxic against three different cancer cell lines. Finally, podophyllotoxin-like lignans could be identified by observing the fragmentation pattern on mass spectra, obtained from the LC-MS in two species: Linum scabrellum and Hyptis suaveolens.