Histone deacetylase (HDAC1) has a high expression in many cancer cells and curcumin can inhibit the growth of cancer cells. This paper was designed to investigate the expression of HDAC1 of Raji cells and the effect of curcumin on their proliferation and apoptosis. Raji cells were treated with 3. 125-50 μmol/L curcumin for 8-48 h and the growth inhibition rates of Raji cells were measured by MTT. The expression of HDAC1 on Raji cells were examined by mRNA, Western blot at 24 h various concertrations (1.6-50 μmol/L). Curcumin could selectively inhibit the proliferation of Raji cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner, with the inhibition rate being 52.47 %-82.18%(P＜0.01).The up-regulation of HDAC1 expression was observed within 24 h after the treatment with curcumin as shown by RT-PCR and Western blot. With the increase of concentration, the expression was down-regulated in a dose- dependent manner. It is concluded that the expression of HDAC1 plays an important role in the proliferation and apoptosis of Raji cells and curcumin can inhibit the growth of Raji cells at various concentrations and promote the apoptosis of Raji cells.