Lawsonia Inermis: Its Anatomy and its Antimalarial, Antioxidant and Human Breast Cancer Cells MCF7 Activities

Lawsonia inermis L. (= L. alba Lamk.), belonging to the Lythraceae family, is a very widespread medicinal plant and natural dye in the world. This herb which has interesting dyeing properties was used traditionally for centuries in Asia, in Africa for dyeing hair and painting skin and nails. Since 1890, it has been widely distributed to Europe and nowadays available in worldwide market as ingredient in many hair dyes and hair-care products. Lawsonia. inermis, also called “henna”, contains many kinds of chemical compounds, such as coumarin, quinones, flavonoids etc. and has stronger physiological activity. Due to its natural and harmless characters, the Henna is used as a kind of natural dye, and is used as a raw material for natural hair dyes. In addition, Henna can be used as dyes for textile and tattoo material. The medicinal value of L. inermis is very high and it is used for treatments of headache, jaundice, leprosy [1]. In addition, Henna was shown as an unusual cause of children suicide [2].