OBJECTIVE The treatment of human glioma tumor is still an unmet medical need. Natural products are always promising resources for discovery of anticancer drugs. Lauryl gallate (LG) is one of the derivatives of gallic acid, widely present in plants, that has been shown to induce anticancer activities in many human cancer cell lines; however, it has not been studied in human glioma cell lines. Thus, the effects of LG on human glioblastoma U87 cells were investigated in the present in vitro study. METHODS Cell morphology and viability were examined by phase-contrast microscopy. Annexin V/Propidium iodide (PI) double staining were performed and assayed by flow cytometry to confirm that viable cell number reduction was due to the induction of apoptosis. Furthermore, U87 cells were exposed to LG in various concentrations and were analyzed by caspase activity assay. To further confirm that LG induced apoptotic cell death, the expression of apoptosis-associated proteins in LG-treated U87 cells was tested by western blot. RESULTS LG induced morphological changes and decreased viability in U87 cells. Annexin V/PI double staining revealed that LG induced apoptotic cell death in U87 cells in a dose-dependent manner. The increased activities of caspase-2, -3, -8 and -9 demonstrated that LG induced U87 cell apoptosis through a caspase-dependent pathway. In terms of molecular level, LG increased pro-apoptotic proteins Bax and Bak and decreased anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 in U87 cells. Furthermore, LG also suppressed the expression of p-Akt, Pak1, Hif-1α and Hif-2α, β-catenin and Tcf-1 in U87 cells. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that LG induced apoptotic cell death via the caspase-dependent pathway in U87 cells.