ABSTRACT
Phyllanthus amarus Schumach and Thonn (family Phyllanthaceae) is known for its hepatoprotective (Naaz et al., 2007) and antiviral effects (Thyagarajan et al., 1988). The plant is widely used in different traditional systems of medicine to combat injuries related to the liver. It also exhibits a wide spectrum of pharmacological activities (Calixto et al., 1998; Bagalkotkar et al., 2006). Studies from our laboratory and by others have shown that the plant possesses signi‹cant antioxidant (Kumar and Kuttan, 2004), anti-in•ammatory (Kassuya et al., 2006), antidiabetic (Raphael et al., 2002b), urolytic, gastroprotective (Raphael and Kuttan, 2003), antifungal, and antibacterial activities. In this chapter, we describe the anticancer effects of P. amarus.
