Curcuma longa Linn (CL), also known as commonly known as ‘Haldi’ in Hindi is an Indian spice and medicinal plant belonging to Zingiberaceae family and is extensively used in Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha medicine and as home remedy for various diseases. The active constituent of turmeric is curcumin, a polyphenol, responsible for the yellow color and volatile oils like tumerone, atiantone and zingiberone. In the current study, inrnvitro cytotoxic activity of 50% ethanolic extract of CL rhizomes was evaluated against human breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 and normal Vero epithelial cell line. The anticancer activity of CL ethanolic extract was determined using MTT assay and cytometer based analysis. The percentage viability of the cell lines was determined by using Trypan blue dye exclusion method. HPLC profiling was also carried out for identification of the activerncomponents, which demonstrated the presence of curcumin in the ethanolic extract. Ethanolic extract of CL showed significant anticancer activity on MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cell line. IC₅₀ values of CLrnethanolic extract with respect to MDA-MB-231 was found to be 49 ± 2.08 μg/ml in 0.25% DMSO and 40±1.03 μg/ml in 0.5% DMSO. The ethanolic extract would be studied further for isolation and characterization of active components for lead optimization studies. Future studies would entail evaluation and comparison of anti-cancer potential of pure curcumin with that of the whole CL extract.