Evaluation of Cytotoxic Potential and Chemical Fingerprinting of Mandacaru (Cereus jamacaru) Bioactive Fractions.

Mandacaru (Cereus jamacaru DC.) is a species of treelike cactus typical of the arid and semiarid regions of northeastern Brazil. Initially, the ethanol extract of mandacaru succulent and segmented stems was obtained and then submitted to liquid-liquid partition with hexane, dichloromethane, and ethyl acetate. The obtained fractions were evaluated for their cytotoxic potential against HCT-116 cells (colorectal carcinoma), with the hexane (88.59 ± 10.88%) and dichloromethane (65.91 ± 14.03%) fractions being the most active ones. These fractions were further submitted to chromatography on silica (63-200 µm), pore diameter 60 Å, resulting in several subfractions that were re-analyzed for cytotoxic activity. Furthermore, the bioactive subfractions were analysed by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. Arithmetic indexes and molecular networks (Global Natural Products Social Molecular Networking [GNPS]) were employed to establish the chemical profile. Thereby, it was possible to annotate 57 compounds, including terpenes, esters, alcohols, alkanes, fatty acids, and derivatives, of which 27 compounds were also annotated by the GNPS platform.