ABSTRACT: Spice is widely consumed as flavorings in the world, and shows many bioactive activities. In this study, the antiproliferative activities of 48 spices on three kinds of cancer cells were systematically evaluated. The spices were extracted with 50% aqueous ethanol, and the antiproliferative effects of these extracts on human breast cancer cells MCF-7, human lung cancer cells A549 and human hepatoma cell HepG2 were investigated by the MTT assay. Furthermore, the dose-effect relationships of eight spice extracts having the highest antiproliferative activities on three kinds of cancer cells were studied. The results found that the antiproliferative activities varied greatly in different kinds of spices and different cancer cells. In addition, several spices had strong inhibition on the proliferation of all three kinds of cancer cells, such as garlic, rocambole, pod pepper, little green pepper, leek and leek flower stem. Moreover, most of eight spice samples could dose-dependently inhibit growth of three cancer cells. This paper would be helpful for the understanding of the anticancer activities of these spices, and several spices with strong antiproliferative activities could be of great potential to be developed into anticancer agents or functional foods.