Euphorbia hirta L. is a medicinal plant traditionally used around the world for the treatment of various pathologies. Studies reported in the literature showed that this plant species has numerous pharmacological properties, including antioxidant and antiproliferative properties which could be due to the presence of phenolic compounds. This study aimed to evaluate the anti-free radical and anticancer properties of Euphorbia hirta L. extracts on U937 and K562 cancer cell lines. The antiradical activity was realized by using the DPPH method and the antiproliferative effect was evaluated using the trypan blue method. Apoptotic activity was measured by Hoechst and Mito Tracker Red staining methods. The obtained results showed that ethyl acetate (AcOEt) and butanol (BuOH) extracts had the highest significant antiradical activities with IC50 values of 3.92 ± 0.01 μg/mL and 7.48 ± 0.07 μg/mL than the reference compound Trolox (IC50 = 3.81 ± 0.04 μg/mL), Cytotoxicity results revealed that acetate extract possesses very remarkable antiproliferative
and apoptotic effects with IC50 values of 16.60 ± 4.40 μg/mL and 29.70 ± 2.10 μg/mL on U937 cancer cells. These results demonstrated that ethyl acetate extract of Euphorbia hirta L. is a promising candidate for the formulation of anticancer
phytomedicines

Medicinal plant; DPPH; antioxidant; cytotoxicity; cancer; flavonoids