Leptadenia reticulata, ext.

Anticancer Research

L. reticulata, frequently known as Jivanti, belongs to Apocynaceae family. It isspread across the tropics and subtropics of India, Burma, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Africa,the Philippines, Cambodia, and Mauritius. However, due to overexploitation, itsnatural habitat has been under threat and, hence, considered as endangered species.More recently, due to higher demand for its raw material from the pharmaceuticaland nutraceutical industries, the plant has been encouraged to cultivate commerciallyin some parts of India. The plant is traditionally used to cure human problemssuch as hematopoiesis, tuberculosis, cough, emaciation, dyspnea, burning sensation,fever, dysentery, and cancer (Mohanty et al. 2017). It is used as a revitalizingand rejuvenating agent in Ayurveda medical practice. The plant contains severalbiologically active compounds, namely, α-amyrin, ferulic acid, diosmetin,β-sitosterol, luteolin, hentricontanol, stigmasterol, simiarenol, reticulin, and leptaculatin.The plant extracts are used in the several commercial brands of herbal preparations(Speman, Calshakti, Envirocare, and Chyawanprash). L. reticulata extractshave shown an effective activity against Dalton’s ascites lymphoma in mice andinhibited different cancer cell lines in vitro (Sathiyanarayanan et al. 2007; Mohantyet al. 2014, 2017).