Objectives: This experiment aims to investigate the apoptosis effect of curcumin and its analogs pentagamavunon-0 (PGV-0) and PGV-1 on normal and other cancer cell lines.Methods: Growth inhibition effect was investigated using the MTT method. Double staining used acridine orange, 2-(4-aminodiphenyl)-6-indolcarbamidine dihydrochloride and ethidium bromide was performed to determine morphological changes of cells. Detection of PARP, caspase-3, PUMA and BAX using a western blot method was conducted to elucidate the apoptosis effect of the compounds.Results: PGV-1 (2.5 μM) and PGV-0 (5.0 μM) could inhibit T47D-cell growth on 72 h observation, but not for curcumin. DNA staining showed PGV-1 has the strongest apoptosis induction effect on T47D-cells compared to PGV-0 and curcumin as well. Western blot analysis resulted in cleavage PARP (83 kD) on HeLa, T47D, and MCF-7 cells treated with PGV-1 (2.5 µM), PGV-0 (5.0 µM). Curcumin (10.0 µM) just induced apoptosis on T47D-cell and MCF-7 cell, but not HeLa cell. Cleavage PARP resulted by apoptosis process in the cell. PGV-1 (2.5 µM) had a stronger apoptosis effect compared to PGV-0 (5.0 µM) and curcumin (10.0 µM) based on cleaved PARP result qualitatively. On the normal cell (NH3T3), cells that were treated with the compounds resulted in a negative cleavage PARP. This result indicated that the compounds were part of a selectively induced cancer cell line apoptosis process. Conclusion:Curcumin, PGV-0 and PGV-1 could inhibit cell growth by induce apoptosis on cancer cells but not on normal cells, which PGV-1 has strongest apoptosis induction effect on cancer cell lines.