Medicinal plants constitute important components of flora and are widely distributed in different regions of India. Based on ethnomedical significance, we have collected several medicinal plants used in traditional medicine from Eastern Ghats of India and evaluated for their biological activity. In the present study, a method utilizing brine shrimp (Artemia salina Leach) lethality was used to screen medicinal plants for their biological activity. Aqueous extracts from 118 Indian medicinal plants were screened by the brine shrimp lethality assay and found eleven out of the 118 extracts showed significant toxicity to the brine shrimp (<60 μg/ml). Polygonum cuspidatum and Syzygium cumini extracts have exhibited potent activity with LC50 13.5 and 20, respectively. The results were analyzed within the context of the available traditional knowledge and uses for these plants. Present study could be useful in the search for new antitumor compounds from the Indian flora.