Objective To investigate the effect and mechanism of oxymatrine on invasion and metastasis of human pancreatic cancer line SW1990 in vitro. Methods Human pancreatic cancer cell line SW1990 was cultured in vitro. Oxymatrine was added into the culture media of SW1990 cells. Then MTT assay was used to determine the effect on proliferation. The adhesive capability, the mobile ability and invasive ability of SW1990 cells were detected by the adhesion assay, the crossing-river test, the transwell migration assay and the matrigel invasion method, respectively. RT-PCR was used to detect the mRNA expression of MMP-2 and VEGF. ELISA method was used to detect the protein levels of the VEGF. Results The growth of SW1990 cells was inhibited by oxymatrine in a dose and time-dependent manner. After 2 mg/ml of oxymatrine treatment for SW1990 cells for 1 h, the adhesive capability inhibitory rate was (35.23 ±8.56) % ; 24 h later, crossing-river time was (65.46 ±4.25) h, which was significantly longer than that in control group [ (34.50 ± 4.12) h, P <0.05)], the number of penetrating cells was 91.9 ±9.6, which was significantly lower than that in control group (144.2±17.2, P <0.05). The mRNA expression of MMP-2 and VEGF, expression of protein of VEGF in SW1990 cells was significantly down-regulated [0.515 ±0.063 vs. 0.817 ±0.054, 0.343 ± 0.072 vs. 0.650 ±0.068; (265.50 ±5.45) pg/ml vs. (441.06 ±16.70) pg/ml, P <0.05]. Conclusions Oxymoron can inhibit the invasion and metastasis ability of pancreatic cancer line SW1990 in vitro, and the mechanism is possibly related to the down-regulation of MMP-2 and VEGF expression.