Agave mapisaga aqueous extract shows in vitro and in vivo activity on murine prostate cancer cells

Plants are a source of multiple antineoplastic treatments. However, the effect of many species used in traditional medicine has yet to be demonstrated. In this work, the taxonomic identification of Agave mapisaga was made and a high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) study suggested the presence of the aglycone hecogenin, which is part of compounds such as agavoside C and cantalasaponin 4. The antineoplastic activity of an aqueous extract was tested in vitro and in vivo on PEC-Src epithelial murine prostate cancer cells. In vitro study revelead a significant chemosensivity at 0.125 mg/100 mu L (p=0.0001). Also, in in vivo, using an isotransplantation model with 1x10(6) cells subcutaneously, it was observed that the group treated with 50 mg/kg presented a lower tumor implantation compared with the control without treatment (p=0.04).