The context and purpose of the study: Plants that have been used for traditional medicines are very good sources of phyotochemicals. There are many plants like Casuarina equisetifolia, which are still unexplored for their medicinal properties. In the present study, we have elucidated the in vitro antioxidant and antiproliferative activity of different solvent extracts (both polar and non polar) of C. equisetifolia needles. Main findings: In vitro antioxidant activity of different solvent extracts of C. equisetifolia needles was studied by analyzing the total polyphenols, flavonoids, total antioxidant capacity and free radical scavenging activity. The polar solvent extracts showed significantly high amount total polyphenols, flavonoids, antioxidants and free radical scavenging activity compared to the non polar solvent extracts. The cytotoxic and apoptosis inducing activity of the different solvent extracts were analyzed on MCF-7 cells by MTT assay, acridine orange/ethidium bromide staining, DAPI staining and caspase-3 release. The polar solvent extracts did not show any growth inhibition in MCF-7 cancer cells. But the non polar solvent extracts are very good in inducing cell death by inducing apoptosis which involves DNA fragmentation and release of caspase 3. Using silica gel fractionation and RPHPLC analysis the active component present in non-polar solvent extracts was identified as ascorbic acid. Brief summary and potential implications: Our results indicated that the needles of C. equisetifolia are rich sources of antioxidants and also contain potential anticancer agents. Detailed study on the mechanism of action of purified compound on inhibition of cancer cell growth may provide some potential anticancer molecule from natural source.