JOURNAL OF NATURAL REMEDIES DOI: 10.18311/jnr/2024/34642 Article Received on: 04.08.2023 Accepted on: 24.01.2024 Revised on: 03.01.2024 1. Introduction Cancer is a condition marked by unchecked cell division and the capacity to invade or disseminate the tumour to various parts of the body 1 . An estimated 10.0 million cancer-associated deaths and 19.3 million new cases were reported globally in 2020 2 . e survival rate with cancer treatment is not beneficial to surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy. Chemotherapy produces side effects like vomiting, hair loss, reduction of cell count in the bone marrow and some drugs result in drug resistance 3 . Drug discovery with natural products is evolving as a successful strategy in the development of novel therapeutic drugs. Many diseases like cancer, AIDS, degenerative diseases, and disorders that are getting complicated by synthetic drugs are cured by natural products 4 . Approximately, 80% of the world’s population is dependent on herbal medicine in one or the other aspect for primary health care. 60% of the available chemotherapeutic drugs are derived from natural sources (for example: vincristine, vinblastine, phodophyllotoxin, taxol, etc) 5 . Ebenaceae is a family having medium-sized pan tropical plants with a wide variety of species in Asia and the Indo-Pacific region 6 . It includes two subfamilies such as Ebenoideae and Lissocarpoideae and four important genera, Diospyros, Euclea, Royena and Lissocarpa. is family principally contains two genera such as Diospyros and Euclea with 500-600 species 7 . As an anti-inflammatory drug, Diospyros species are important in traditional medical systems like Chinese, Ayurvedic and Tibetan medicine systems. RESEARCH ARTICLE Phytochemical Screening of Diospyros paniculata Bark and In Vitro Cytotoxic Study on Human Breast Cancer Cell Line Pooja Kagawad, Parixit Bhandurge * , Rohan Singadi, Shailendra Suryawanshi and Kiran Gaikwad Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, KLE College of Pharmacy, KAHER, Belagavi – 590010, Karnataka, India; parixitbhandurge@klepharm.edu Abstract Medicinal plants are the resource of traditional medicines and modern medicine is also developed indirectly from plants. In traditional medicinal practices such as Ayurveda and Unani, Diospyros paniculata has been recognised for its medicinal properties. Different parts of the plant, including the leaves, bark, fruits, and seeds, are utilised to prepare various herbal remedies and these species show a richness of triterpenoids, naphthoquinones and naphthaldehydes which majorly contribute to the anticancer activity. D. paniculata bark was extracted with methanol and fractionated by low-polar to high-polar solvents. In-vitro cytotoxic activity of each solvent fraction was studied on the MCF-7 (Human Adenocarcinoma) cell line by MTT assay. The ethyl acetate fraction shows a significant IC 50 value of 23.47 µg/ml which might be due to the presence of principal compounds in the fraction. Methanol fraction showed a moderate IC 50 value. To isolate chemicals, the chloroform fraction underwent column chromatography. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), 1 H NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy), and 13 C NMR were used to characterise the isolated chemicals. Two compounds were isolated from chloroform fraction identified as Betulin and Lupeol. Keywords: Betulin, Cytotoxicity, Diospyros paniculata, Lupeol, MCF-7 *Author for correspondence