**Abstract**

Over the centuries, humans have used medicinal plants to treat various diseases. Initially, these medications took the form of crude medications such as tinctures, teas, poultices, powders, and other herbal formulations. Almost 80% of the world population uses traditional medicines for primary health care, most of which involve the use of plant extracts. The study of plants continues, mainly, with the aim of discovering new secondary metabolites that can be used to recover health, both human and animal or vegetable. Cancer is a major public health problem worldwide and Mexico is not exempt from this problem. However, the great challenge for anticancer treatments is the specific release of the drug in the tumor tissue to avoid the adverse effects on normal cells. In this investigation, a species of the *Buddleja* genus is studied in terms of its cytotoxic activity in a prostate cancer cell line. Regarding the results found, it was obtained that the polar extract of aerial parts and the medium polarity extract of aerial parts have no cytotoxicity and high cytotoxicity, respectively against a prostate cancer cell line.

**Keywords:** Buddleja, prostate cancer, cytotoxicity, medicinal plants

## **1. Introduction**

Cancer constitutes a major public health problem worldwide and Mexico is not exempt from this problem. However, the great challenge for anticancer treatments is the specific release of the drug in the tumor tissue to avoid adverse effects on normal cells. Prostate cancer in Mexico represents the one with the highest incidence in men with 41.6 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018. Likewise, worldwide, prostate cancer represents the second type of cancer with the highest incidence after lung cancer in 2018 (**Figure 1**). Prostate cancer in Mexico represents the highest mortality in men with 10 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018 and the highest prevalence (5 years) in men with 55,565 cases from 2013 to 2018, respectively (**Figure 2**) [1].

Cancer occurs when healthy prostate cells change and proliferate uncontrollably, eventually forming a tumor. A tumor can be cancerous or benign. When a cancerous tumor is malignant, it means that it can grow and spread to other parts

*Comparison of the incidence and mortality worldwide and in Mexico of prostate cancer in men of all ages (based on [1]).*

### **Figure 2.**

*Estimated 5 year prevalence in Mexico of prostate cancer in men of all ages (based on [1]).*

of the body. When a tumor is benign it means that the tumor can grow, but it will not spread [2]. Some types of prostate cancer grow very slowly and may not cause symptoms or problems for years. Even when prostate cancer has spread to other parts of the body, it can often be controlled for a long time, allowing men even with advanced prostate cancer to live in good health and quality of life for many years. However, if cancer cannot be controlled well with existing treatments, it can cause symptoms such as pain and fatigue, and can sometimes lead to death. An important part of managing prostate cancer is monitoring growth over time, to determine if it grows slowly or quickly [3].

Over the centuries medicinal plants have been used as raw medicines in the form of tinctures, teas, poultices, and powders to treat all kinds of diseases. Currently,

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99973 Evaluation of the Cytotoxic Activity of a Species of the Buddleja Genus in a Prostate Cancer Cell…*

**Figure 3.** *The geographical location of plants of the Buddleja genus (recovered from www.Tropicos.org).*

80% of the world population uses traditional medicines, the majority involves the use of plant extracts, and 50% of all medicines for clinical use in the world come from plants, where higher plants provide no less than 25% of the total [4, 5].

The chemical study of the plant kingdom has provided a large number of potentially useful compounds, and since only a small percentage of the planet's superior plant species have been investigated for their active compounds, the chemical study of plants is considered to follow being promising for the discovery of pharmacologically useful compounds [6].

Recent phytochemical studies of plants that have or do not have an ethnobotanical history for the treatment of cancer have often resulted in the isolation of principles with antitumor activity, finding active metabolites such as flavonoids and chalcones [7], alkaloids [8, 9], sesquiterpenic lactones [10], diterpenes [11], and cardenolides [12] among others, which were shown to have activity against cancer cells.

The *Buddleja* genus (Fam. *Scrophulariaceae Juss.)* has around 300 species of shrubs, where there are both perennial and deciduous species. This group of plants is native from the southern United States to Chile and from Africa and warm parts of Asia (**Figure 3**). Dioecious plants are found in the southern part of the United States up to Chile, while monoecious plants are found in Africa and Asia [13].

There are some studies about species of the *Buddleja* genus, it was analyzed the chemical composition of *Buddleja polystachya* essential oil where it was found that there are monoterpenes such as bulnesol and limonene; this oil showed cytotoxic activity against carcinoma cell lines [14]. The antiproliferative and apoptotic activity of *Buddleja davidii* extracts was studied in gastric cancer and breast cancer cell lines, where it was concluded that colchicine and luteolin generate apoptosis in cells, which makes them potential drugs for the treatment of carcinoma, it was observed that they also generate apoptosis in tumor cells [15].

It should be emphasized that it is of great importance to carry out the study of extracts and fractions of a plant of the *Buddleja* genus regarding its cytotoxicity since, thanks to previous studies of plants of the same genus, highly toxic results have been obtained, which may be an indication that the plant has anticancer activity.
