Figure 1.
(A) Chromatogram of the BuOH fraction of U. tomentosa showing phenolic compounds, including proanthocyanidins in the region between 50 and 60 minutes. (B) Chromatogram of the CHCl3 fraction of U. tomentosa. The following compounds were tentatively identified as 1- speciophylline; 2- uncarine F; 3- mitraphyline; 4- isomitraphyline; 5- pteropodine and 6- isopteropodine by comparison with data from the literature.
Figure 2.
Chemical structures of some of the compounds relevant to this study.
(A) Structure of the major alkaloids of U. tomentosa. The individual compounds differ in configuration at C-3, C-7, C-15, C-19 and C-20. (B) Structure of quinovic acid (R = H) and its glycosides (R = several sugars), as well as (C) of 7-deoxyloganic acid, all of them isolated from U. tomentosa.
Figure 3.
Assessment of the free radical-scavenging activity of the BHE extract of U. tomentosa (A), as well as its two resulting fractions: BuOH (B) and CHCl3 (C) at various concentrations.
Negative control was distilled water and positive control was ascorbic acid (50 µg.mL−1). Symbols: **p<0.01 and ***p<0.001 as compared to the negative control.
Figure 4.
Tumour mass (A) and volume (B) in Walker-256 tumour-bearing rats treated with BHE Uncaria tomentosa extract or its two fractions (BuOH and CHCl3).
Symbols: **p<0.01 as compared to the control group.
Table 1.
Biochemical parameters measured in the plasma of Walker-256 tumour-bearing rats treated during 14 days with BHE U. tomentosa extract or its two fractions BuOH and CHCl3.
Figure 5.
Main oxidative stress parameters measured in W256 tumour-bearing rats treated with U. tomentosa BHE extract or its two fractions (BuOH and CHCl3).
SOD activity in the liver (A) and tumour (B); Cat activity in the liver (C) and tumour (D) and LPO rates in the liver (E) and tumour (F). Symbols: *p<0.05; **p<0.01 and ***p<0.001 as compared to the control group; #p<0.05 and ###p<0.001 as compared to the baseline group; °p<0.05 as compared to the BuOH fraction.
Table 2.
GSH levels in liver and tumour tissue, as well as GST activity in the liver of W256 tumour-bearing rats treated with U. tomentosa BHE extract or its two fractions (BuOH and CHCl3).
Figure 6.
Catalase expression in liver (A) and tumour (B), and SOD-1 expression in liver (C) and tumour (D), as measured by Western blot.
The densitometry graphs are displayed beside each picture. Group abbreviations: CO: Control, BR: BHE extract, BU: BuOH fraction, CH: CHCl3 fraction.
Figure 7.
Levels of the inflammatory cytokine TNF-α in the hepatic (A) and tumour (B) homogenates of Walker-256 tumour-bearing rats treated with U. tomentosa BHE extract or its two fractions (BuOH and CHCl3).
Symbols: ***p<0.001 as compared to the control group; ##p<0.01 and ###p<0.001 as compared to the BHE extract-treated group; °°°p<0.001 as compared to the baseline group.
Figure 8.
Survival analysis of W256 tumour-bearing rats treated with U. tomentosa BHE extract or its two fractions (BuOH and CHCl3) during 30 days (A).
Data is expressed as percentage of survival as per the logrank (Mantel-Cox) test. (B) Correlation between tumour weight (g) and survival rate (%) analysed by linear regression. Symbols: *p<0.05 and ***p<0.001 as compared to the control group.