Aristolochia indica, ext.

Anticancer Research

A. indica, an endangered plant species with immense medicinal importance, belongsto Aristolochiaceae family. It is locally called by names, Garudakkodi, Eswaramooli,Iswaberusa, and Ishrmul. It is a shrub with a long twining stem and is also known as“worm killer” because of its antihelminthic properties. This plant species is listed ina red data list of South Indian medicinal herbs. It is aromatic in nature and used totreat fever, cholera, ulcer, skin diseases, leprosy, snakebite, and cancers (Dey andDe 2011; Anilkumar et al. 2014). Some of the major phytoconstituents of A. indicainclude ishwarane, aristolochen, ishwarone, aristololactam N-β- D-glucoside,6β-hydroxy-stigmast-4-en-3-one, 3β-hydroxy-stigmast-5-en-7-one, aristolochinealkaline, isoaristolochic acid, allantoin, pinocarvone, and α-pinene (Dey and De2011; Kuo et al. 2012). Various solvent extracts of this plant possess antiproliferativeactivity against MCF-7, the human breast cancer cell line (Anilkumar et al.2014; Subramaniyan et al. 2015). Likewise, aristolochic acid isolated from theethonolic whole plant extract has shown to prevent oral cancer in Albino rats inducedby 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide (Mariappan 2012).