The usage of herbal medicine has been practiced from ancient times to date because of its extensive therapeutic potentials. The use of plant-based medications is promising due to their accessibility, low toxicity, and with fewer side effects (Al-Worafi, 2020, Agidew, 2022). Herbal medicine has been established worldwide for its potent antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, and anti-inflammatory properties. The versatile secondary metabolites associated with medicinal plants are the major contributing factor behind their therapeutic properties (Mohan et al., 2021).

Around 75–90% of the world’s population relies on herbal medicines for the treatment of various illnesses (Mohan et al., 2021). The secondary metabolites produced by plants are used to cure many chronic and infectious diseases (Pervaiz et al., 2019). Some of the important secondary metabolites including alkaloids, flavonoids, phenolics, tannins, saponins, steroids, glycosides, terpenes, etc. are distributed in various plant parts (Agidew, 2022). These bioactive agents are the backbone for formulations of numerous contemporary medicines (Kaur et al., 2023).

Cancer is one of the major life-threatening and dreadful diseases. Every year, nearly 14 million people are diagnosed with cancer, which results in nearly 10 million deaths (Ferlay et al., 2021). It is a group of illness that is defined by alternations in cells that cause uncontrolled cell multiplication, termed as neoplastic disease. Till date, various types of cancer in humans are reported in various organs such as mucous membranes, dermis, pancreas, thyroid, prostrate, liver, and breast, as well as the colon and associated organs (Balkrishna et al., 2023). Among these, ovarian cancer (OC) is the seventh most common cancer type. It is one of the highly dangerous cancers because of its asymptomatic nature and difficulties in diagnosis at the early stages (Teekaraman et al., 2019). Women in the age group of 20–55 are more prone to OC (Shafreen and Kumar, 2022). The treatment methods of OC include radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and surgery. Among these, chemotherapy is mostly preferred by physicians as an initial treatment. However, continuous chemotherapy leads to various side effects like bone marrow suppressions, hair loss, fatigue, neuropathies, skin disorders, and gastrointestinal disorders (Balkrishna et al., 2023). To overcome this, chemotherapy can be replaced by plant-based medicine, which is less toxic and has low side effects. Nearly 60% of the available anticancer compounds are extracted from natural sources (Asma et al., 2022). Several plants-derived phytochemicals such as vinblastine, camptothecin, and taxol were isolated and identified as anticancer agents by various researchers (Sheel et al., 2014, Shukla and Mehta, 2015, Jongrungraungchok et al., 2023). Plants are rich sources of various anticancer agents, such as carotenes, dithiolthiones, flavonoids, indoles, isothiocyanates, phenols, folic acid, and vitamins C and E (Balkrishna et al., 2023).

Crateva religiosa G. Forst. commonly known as garlic pear or temple plant is a flowering tree belonging to the family Capparaceae. It is a perennial tree in which the leaves are trifoliate with whitish to milky white flowers, and the bark is marked with white spots (Vijaya et al., 2018). The plant is well known for its various pharmacological properties like diuretic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antirheumatic, antiperiodic, antimycotic, antipyretic, and anthelminthic (Bhattacharjee and Shashidhara, 2012, Kumar et al., 2020). The genus Crateva comprises 70 species, of which C. magna, C. tapia, and C. nurvala are considered to be synonyms of C. religiosa. The name Crateva comes from the Greek botanist Crataeva, and religiosa indicates its presence near religious places (Kumar et al., 2020, Gowda et al., 2021). In Ayurveda, the bark of this plant is used in making Kanchnar Guggulu, which is used as a cytotoxic and antiproliferative agent (Tomar et al., 2018). Currently, various reports are available for the anticancer potential of C. religiosa against lung cancer (Vignesh et al., 2023), cervical cancer, and adenocarcinoma-mammary gland cancer. Nevertheless, to date, there have been no records available for the anticancer potential of C. religiosa against human OC (PA-1) cells. Therefore, the present investigation focused on the evaluation of the anticancer and antioxidant potential of CRE, along with the chemical profiling discussed in this paper.