WILLIAM N. SETZER, MARK N. FLAIR, KENDALL G. BYLER, JIN HUANG, MELODY A. THOMPSON, and AMANDA F. SETZER
Department of Chemistry, The University of Alabama in Huntsville,Huntsville, Alabama 35899.
DEBRA M. MORIARITY, ROBERT 0. LAWTON, and DEBBIE B. WINDHAM-CARSWELL
Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, Alabama 35899.
(Received: November 5, 1991)
Key Word Index: Costa Rica, natural products, Araliaceae, antibacterial, antifungal, cytotoxicity, Hep G2.
ABSTRACT
Tropical plant materials from the ginseng family (Araliaceae) have heen collected from the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, Costa Rica, and the Monteverde community. These plants were extracted (ethanol extraction, and chloroform extraction) and the crude extracts tested for fungicidal, bacteriocidal, and cytotoxic activity. None of the crude extracts showed antibacterial activity. Chloroform extracts from various Oreopanax spp. did show antifungal activity however. Crude ethanol extracts were screened for potential antitumor activity in-vitro against a human hepatocellular carcnoma cell line (Hep C2). Six members of Araliaceae show remarkable in-vitro cytotoxic activity against human Hep G2 hepatocellular carcinoma cells hut limited cytotoxic activity against normal adult rat hepatocytes.