Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam.: Pharmacognostic, Phytochemical Study and Its Evaluation for Antimitotic Potential by Modified Allium cepa Bioassay

Background and Objectives: Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam. commonly known as jack tree reported to have various traditional applications, attributed by every part, for the treatment of various ailments. Although various research studies suggested the valuable importance of jack tree and still under explorations; still much is waiting to hidden out. Some of these areas include the determination of antimitotic potentials of various extracts of its leaves as a direction for head- ing towards anticancer efficacy and any variations occurred with that of earlier studies along with some controversies reported by the previous researchers as an important objective. Materials and Methods: This study was investigated stepwise with pharmacognostic evaluation-collection and authentication of plant materials, macroscopic evaluation, microscopic evaluation, physi- cal evaluation followed by phytochemical screening of petroleum ether, chloroform, acetone, and ethanol extracts of plant leaves for the presence of various phytoconstituents groups. For the determination of antimitotic activity of leaves extracts, the Allium cepa bioassay with some modifications was used. Results and Discussion: Our study revealed that the majority of the pharmacognostic and phytochemical characteristics of A. heterophyllus Lam. are comparable, as supported by prior literature. While, in the assessment of antimitotic potential using a modified Allium cepa bioassay, the petroleum ether extract demonstrated a notable antimitotic effect. Conclusion: On analysis of the results, besides the common features, some interesting pharma- cognostic findings includes presence of large amount of cystoliths which might responsible for higher ash value, higher moisture content, presence of both anomocytic and actinocytic stomata, both hooked and non-hooked covering trichomes. In the antimitotic bioassay, the petroleum ether extract of leaves showed higher antimitotic activity with mitotic index 27.8±0.03 (p<0.05) followed by chloroform, acetone and ethanol extracts, probably due to presence of various phy- toconstituents in it as revealed by phytochemical screening.