Abstract

Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. Women with genetic mutation in either BRCA1 or BRCA2 have increased risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer. The lifetime risk of breast cancer of women has been estimated to 82% and lifetime risk of ovarian cancer is 54% for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers. Herbal medicine tending to have broad complementary or synergistic action on physiological system. Evidence for effectiveness of herbal medicine is limited although people find them helpful and their use tends to be based on traditional use rather than scientific research. Centella asiatica is medicinal herb that has been widely used in folk medicine to treat various disease. The main constituent for Centella asiatica, ‘asiatic acid and asiaticoside’ is mainly found to show anticancer activity against breast and ovarian cancer. The review shows that, the growth suppression was in concentration dependent manner, relating to cytotoxicity of SKOV-3 and OVCAR-3 cells. Centella asiatica show inhibition of cell proliferation in breast cancer cells, MCF-7. According to studies, there have been no reports documenting negative interaction between CA and medication to date, thus possessing potential anticancer property