Anticancer potential of Mimosa Pudica Linn. Lajwanti in cultured dalton’s ascites lymphoma cells

The constant use of chemotherapy induces resistance in the cancer cells and they become refractive to treatment leading to treatment failure. Therefore, it is necessary to screen newer agents which are less toxic and kill neoplastic cells effectively. Plants have provided several anticancer modern chemotherapeutic drugs including vinca alkaloids, taxols, epipodophyllotoxins etc. and still can provide newer molecules for cancer treatment. Therefore, present study was undertaken to study the cytotoxic activity of Mimosa pudica or Lajwanti whole plant extracted in chloroform, ethanol and water in cultured Dalton’s ascites lymphoma cells that were treated with 0, 10, 25, 50, 75, 100, 150, 200 and 250µg/ ml of chloroform, ethanol and aqueous extracts by MTT assay. The chloroform, ethanol and aqueous extracts of Lajwanti killed Dalton’s ascites lymphoma cells in a dose related manner and the aqueous extract was most potent when compared to ethanol and chloroform extracts. The aqueous extract had an IC 50 value of 71.32µg/ml followed by ethanol extract with an IC 50 of 90.33µg/ml, whereas chloroform extract was least effective with an IC 50 of 1190.69µg/ml. Our study demonstrates that Lajwanti, a traditionally used plant in Ayurveda has a cytotoxic activity and may be useful to kill neoplastic cells.