The dense concentration of stars and high velocity dispersions in the Galactic centre imply that stellar collisions frequently occur .
Stellar collisions could therefore result in significant mass loss rates .
We calculate the amount of stellar mass lost due to indirect and direct stellar collisions and find its dependence on the present-day mass function of stars .
We find that the total mass loss rate in the Galactic centre due to stellar collisions is sensitive to the present-day mass function adopted .
We use the observed x-ray luminosity in the Galactic centre to preclude any present-day mass functions that result in mass loss rates > 10 ^ { -5 } \mathrm { M _ { \odot } yr ^ { -1 } } in the vicinity of \sim 1 ^ { \prime \prime } .
For present-day mass functions of the form , dN / dM \propto M ^ { - \alpha } , we constrain the present-day mass function to have a minimum stellar mass \lesssim 7 \mathrm { M _ { \odot } } and a power law slope \gtrsim 1.25 .
We also use this result to constrain the initial mass function in the Galactic centre by considering different star formation scenarios .