Actividad antitumoral de una mezcla de polisacáridos obtenida de la especie Argemone mexicana L.

at present, plants are the main source of obtention of most of the drugs that may be useful for treating cancer. a mixture of polysaccharides was extracted from the leaves of argemone mexicana l. plant, also known as cardo santo, collected in the flowering period. the method of incorporation of tritiated thymidine was used to determine the effect of the mixture on the cellular proliferation in human cellular lines (h125 and u1906). the antitumoral activity of this crude of polysaccharides administered alone or combined with 2 known cytostatic agents was evaluated in mice inoculated with tumoral cells of lymphocytic leukemia p-388 and sarcoma 37 and their indirect antitumoral activity was assessed in ehrlich's ascitic tumor. in all the cases, it was calculated the increase of survival time in relation to the positive or negative pattern of comparison. the mixture of polysaccharides caused a rejection to elrich's tumor implantation, and its administration together with 5-fluoracyl produced a moderate increase of the antitumoral activity in the mice carriers of the sarcoma 37 tumor. these results may be related to the possible stimulating effect of this mixture on the immune system of the animals with tumor. it is necessary to study the effect of the mixture of polysaccharides obtained from a. mexicana species on the immune system, and the effectivity of its mixture with other cytostatic agents to determine its possible use as a chemotherapy adjuvant for the treatment of cancer.