chemopreventive action of phyllanthus urinaria linn on dmbainduced skin carcinogenesis in mice the inhibition of tumor incidence by hydroalcoholic extract of the whole plant of p urinaria was evaluated in 67 weeks old female albino mice on twostage process of skin carcinogenesis induced by a single application of 712dimethylbenzaanthracene 50 microg50 microl of acetone and 2 weeks later promoted by repeated application of croton oil 1 in acetonethree times a week till the end of the experiment 15 weeks topical application of the extract at a dose of 5 mgkg body weightday for 15 weeks at the periinitiational stage ie 7 days before and 7 days after dmba application promotional stage ie from the time of croton oil application and both peri and postinitiational stages ie 7 days prior to dmba application and continued till the end of the experiment on the shaven backs of the mice recorded a significant reduction in tumor incidence to 50 333 and 167 respectively in comparison to the control ie the mice treated with dmba and croton oil only where tumor incidence was found to be 818 the average number of papillomas per mouse was also significantly reduced the results suggest a possible chemopreventive property of p urinaria against dmbainduced skin papillomagenesis in mice