Parthenolide is well known as anti-inflammation drug and has anti-cancer effect in various cancer cells, however, the anticancer mechanism of parthenolide is still not fully understood.In the present study, the anticancer effect of parthenolide on human hepatocellular carcinoma cells HepG2 and the mechanisms involved in this process were investigated.The result from MTT assay demonstrated that parthenolide can effectively reduce HepG2 cell viability.DAPI staining result showed that the number of apoptotic nuclei increased significantly after parthenolide administration compared with the control, this result was further confirmed by TUNEL assay.