The relationship between the apoptosis of human colorectal cancer cells (induced by 6-shogaol) and the expression of APC was investigated to study the possible mechanism of 6-shogaol inhibiting colorectal cancer in this study. SW480 was induced by different concentrations of 6-shogoal (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 μM) in vitro for 24 h. Then the number and morphology of cells were observed by high-frequency fluorescence microscopy, the cell inhibition rate was determined by CCK8 assay, and the apoptosis rate and apoptosis cycle were detected by Annexin V-FITC/PI flow cytometry. In addition, the expression of APC protein was analyzed by western-blot. The results showed that compared with the control group, 6-shogaol could block the proliferation cycle of SW480 in G2/M phase and promote the apoptosis of SW480 in a concentration dependent manner, thereby inhibiting the cell proliferation and enhancing the expression of APC (p<0.05). Consequently, 6- shogaol could induce SW480 apoptosis and inhibit cell proliferation, and might be associated with the activation of APC. With the deepening of this study, the inhibition of tumor cell proliferation induced by 6-shogaol (used as a potential antitumor drug) would get more support of deeper molecular mechanism.