Recent progress in the studies of anticancer drugs originating from plants in China is reviewed in this paper. Guided by the experience of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), several new anticancer drugs have been found. Indirubin from indigofera tinctoria (青黛) is useful for the treatment of chronic myelocytic leukemia. On the basis of structure-activity relationship studies of these compounds, a second generation drug (N-methyl isoindigotin) has been developed. Clinical studies demonstrated that it is more effective than indirubin, 1O-hydroxy campothecin derived from Camptotheca acuminata (喜树) have exhibited definite activity on rodent tumors and it is used for phase Ⅱ studies. Iris latea pallasi Fischer var. Chinensis (马蔺子) may serve as Recent progress in the studies of anticancer drugs originating from plants in China is reviewed in this paper. Guided by the experience of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), several new anticancer drugs have been found. Indirubin from indigofera tinctoria treatment of chronic myelocytic leukemia. On the basis of structure-activity relationship studies of these compounds, a second generation drug (N-methyl isoindigotin) has been developed. Clinical studies that that is more effective than indirubin, 1O-hydroxy campothecin derived from Iris latea pallasi Fischer var. Chinensis may serve as