Anticancer Activity in Lawson Iainnermis (Henna) | Original Article

ABSTRACT:

Every year cancer cases are increasing in leaps and bounds. No country is spared from its deadly paw. Cancer treatment is expensive its medicines are costly and sometimes scarce in the market. Hence, the invention of alternative treatments and discovery of naturally available medicines are going on. Discovery of anti-cancer alkaloids like vinblastine, vincristine, and podophyllotoxins in the 1950s helped the researchers to develop anticancer agents from naturally available products. Mehandi or Lawsonia inermis (L.) is a popular cosmetic product whose usage is known to Asians especially in the Indian subcontinent for centuries. But, Henna has a number of medicinal properties too. It is anti-carcinogenic, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antipyretic, antituberculostatic, and hepatoprotective. Many researchers have discussed about the anticancer and chemo-preventive features of Henna. One of the major constituent of Henna is Lawsone. It is used as an introductory material in the systhesis of a number of anticancer drugs such as atovaquone, lapachol, and dichloroallyl lawsone. Henna also contains quite a few other important chemicals such as isoplumbagin, apigenin, apigenin glyco-sides, luteolin, luteolin-7 glucosides, p-coumarin and lupeol among which many are reported for their chemopreventive and cytotoxicity action against different kinds of cancer cell. In this review, we are providing a report on palingenesis of information on the anticancer potential of Henna or Mehndi. We have gathered information related to in vivo and in vitro studies. We have used the internet, articles, text books, and research papers as resources for information in this regard. This present review summarizes some significant findings on the anticancer prospective of Mehndi or Henna. We think more works are necessary in this regard. Future research works on novel molecules extracted from Mehndi or Henna may offer great expectation for discovering new cancer chemo-therapeutic andor chemo-preventive agents from this extraordinary plant.