Professor Claudia Pessoa, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Federal University of Ceara 

Professor Maria Oliveira, Department of Organic and Inorganic Chemistry, Federal University of Ceara

Abstract
Biodiversity has long been considered a rich source of bioactive natural compounds with diverse and complex structures. In the last decades, small organic molecules derived from plants and micro-organisms have provided several useful anticancer drugs. The Brazilian biodiversity, one of the most diverse in the world, is considered an important source of natural compounds. It has inspired our research group to develop preliminary screening programs in collaboration with chemical research groups to identify potentially bioactive substances. Thus, this presentation will show the antitumor potential of some natural compounds isolated from plants found in the unique Brazilian biome Caatinga, besides micro-organisms. The results were obtained by determination of cytotoxic potential, morphological analysis, cell cycle analysis, structure activity relationship study among other. Efforts have been driven towards target investigation and compound validation in animal model, that includes the recently approved UFC-ANU collaborative project sponsored by the Brazilian funding agency CAPES.