Cancer afflicts everyone and is a dreaded disease as it does not have definite cure, especially for solid tumors in the advanced stages of maligncies. Modern chemotherapeutic regimens are known to induce adverse toxic side effects in the patients undergoing chemotherapy indicating the need to search newer treatment modalities which are less toxic and would cure cancer. The toxic effects of different extracts of Helicia nilagirica were studied by determining the acute toxicity in normal Swiss albino mice, where mice were injected with different doses of the chloroform, ethanol and aqueous extracts of Helicia nilagirica intraperitoneally. The LD50 was found to be 2 g/kg b. wt. for chloroform and 0.75g/kg b. wt. for aqueous extract, whereas the ethanol extract was nontoxic up to a dose of 2g/kg b. wt. The estimation of anticancer activity of Helicia nilagirica in the Dalton's lymphoma tumor bearing mice showed that administration of 50, 75, 100, 125,150 or 175mg/kg b. wt. aqueous extract of Helicia nilagirica resulted in a dose dependent increase in tumor free survival. The highest survival of 16.6% was observed in the mice receiving 175mg/ kg b. wt. aqueous extract, where tumor free survivors were recorded beyond 120 days with an average survival time of 55 and median survival time of 86 days. The administration of different doses of ethanol extract of Helicia nilagirica also elevated the tumor free survival however only up to 38 days for 175mg/kg b. wt. and no tumor free survivors were observed thereafter. The dose of 175mg/kg. b. wt. aqueous extract was chosen for further investigation as maximum tumor free survivors were observed for this dose. The analysis of micronuclei frequency showed a time dependent elevation up to 24h and a decline thereafter. The apoptosis index also increased with assay time up to 36h post treatment. The liver and kidney function tests did not show any significant alteration indicating that it did not exert toxic effect on these two vital organs. Our study demonstrates that Helicia nilagirica is non-toxic and increase the tumor free survival beyond 120 days by inducing DNA damage, apoptosis and necrosis in the tumor cells.Citation: Jagetia GC, Zoremsiami J. Anticancer activity of Helicia nilagirica bedd in mice transplanted with Dalton's lymphoma. Int J Complement Alt Med.Citation: Jagetia GC, Zoremsiami J. Anticancer activity of Helicia nilagirica bedd in mice transplanted with Dalton's lymphoma. Int J Complement Alt Med.