Anticolorectal cancer agents have an inhibitory effect on nitrite production in colonic mucosa and could play an anti-inflammatory role in intestinal inflammation and malignancies [31]. NO has also been demonstrated to be involved in the inhibition of apoptosis in a number of cell types including leukocytes, hepatocytes, trophoblasts, and endothelial cells such as HT-29 [32]. Generally, the antiapoptotic effects of NO can be mediated through a number of mechanisms such as the nitrosylation and inactivation of many of the caspases including caspase 3. As shown in Figure 2, CLG significantly (independent t-test, P < 0.05) stimulated caspase-3 (protein and gene), the hallmark enzyme of apoptosis. Previous reports have shown that the ability of cucurbitacin D to induce apoptosis is related with its ability to activate caspase-3 in cancer cells [33]. Earlier, we also observed the onset of apoptosis marked by the nuclear fragmentation using Hoechst 33342 dye. Both the morphological assessment of changes in apoptotic nuclei and the activation of caspase-3 induced by CGL in this study had validated the presence of involvement of apoptosis in the cell death occurred.