Objective To investigate the inhibitive effect of total alkaloids from Pinellia ternate ( TAPT) on the proliferation of human hepatic carcinoma strain QJY-7703.Methods The proliferation inhibition of human hepatic carcinoma cells treated with TAPT was measured with methyl thiazolil tetracolium colorimetic (MTT) method and plate clone formation assay to detect the inhibitive effect of different concentrations of TAPT on the growth of QJY-7703 strains.Single cell gel electrophoresis (SCGE) was used to detect QJY-7703 cell DNA damage induced by TAPT .Results When compared with the control group , in vitro proliferation of QJY-7703 cells treated with TAPT was decreased significantly , and it was positively correlated with drug dosage and medication time , and statistical sig-nificance could be seen, when comparisons were made (P<0.01,P<0.05).In SCGE detection, significant differences could be seen in cell tail DNA content , tail length and tail movement in the TAPT experimental group , when compared with those of the control group (P<0.01), and a dose-dependent relationship was quite marked .Conclusion In vitro, a certain dosage of TAPT could obviously in-hibit the proliferation of QJY-7703 cells, the mechanism of which might be correlated to DNA damage induced by TAPT .