Though Dehydrocorydaline, an alkaloid isolated from Corydalis turtschaninovii tuber, was known to have anti-coronary artery disease, anti-inflammatory, apoptotic, anti-allergic, anti-acetylcholinesterase, and antitumor effects, the underlying anti-metastatic mechanism of Dehydrocorydalin was never elucidated in lung cancer cells so far. Thus, in the present study, the anti-metastatic effect of Dehydrocorydaline was examined in non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) cells, mainly targeting matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and B cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) signaling. Here, Dehydrocorydaline exerted weak cytotoxicity and attenuated the protein expression of Bcl-2 and activated Bax in a concentration-dependent manner in NSCLC cells, such as A549, H460, H1299, and H596 cells. Also, Dehydrocorydaline suppressed the migration of H1299 cells by wound healing assay and transwell migration assay. Consistently, Dehydrocorydaline attenuated mRNA and protein levels of MMP7 and MMP9 as metastasis biomarkers in H1299 cells by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Of note, Bcl-2 overexpression reduced the cytotoxic and anti-metastatic effects of Dehydrocorydaline on pCDNA-Bcl-2 transfected H1299 cells. Overall, our findings provide scientific evidence that Dehydrocorydaline exerts anti-metastatic potential via suppression of MMPs and Bcl-2 signaling in NSCLC cells. Copyright Š 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.