Inhibitory effects of methanol and water extract of L. bowringii. on the adhesion, migration, invasion and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) activities of MCF 7 human breast cancer cell line are reported. Cells were cultured with 10, 25, 50 microg/mL methanolic or water extract of L. bowringii. Culture medium containing 0.1% DMSO was used as a solvent control. Ultra structural analysis by electron microscopy revealed typical features of apoptosis. A remarkable dose-response parallelism was observed between methanolic extract with growth, migration and invasion of breast cancer cells. Fractionation of methanolic extract by RP-HPLC revealed a pool of phenolic acids. Hoechst 33342 staining assay reveals massive chromatin condensation and subsequent cleavage of structural components of nucleus. The results indicate that methanol extracts inhibit the growth of human breast cancer cells partially through the inhibition of metallo proteinases MMP-2 and MMP-9 activities. Methanolic extract has more anti-metastatic effects in cell based assay than water extract. Clinical application of L. bowringii extract as a bioactive chemopreventive compound may be helpful in limiting breast carcinoma invasion and metastasis.