Abstract. People over the age of 50 are at risk of osteoporotic fracture, which may lead to increased morbidity and mortality. Osteoclasts are responsible for bone resorption in bonerelated disorders. Genipin is a wellknown geniposide aglycon derived from Gardenia jasminoides, which has long been used in oriental medicine for controlling diverse conditions such as inflammation and infection. We aimed to evaluate the effects of genipin on RANKLinduced osteoclast differen tiation and its mechanism of action. Genipin dosedependently inhibited early stage RANKL induced osteoclast differentiation in bone marrow macrophages (BMMs) during culture. Genipin inhibited RANKLinduced IkB degradation and suppressed the mRNA expression of osteoclastic markers such as NFATc1, TRAP, and OSCAR in RANKLtreated BMMs, but did not affect c-Fos mRNA expression. Interestingly, genipin markedly inhibited cFos protein expression in BMMs, which was reversed in the presence of the proteosome inhibitor MG132. Furthermore, genipin inhibited RANKLmediated osteoclast differentiation, which was also rescued by overexpression of c-Fos and NFATc1 in BMMs. Taken together, our findings indicate that genipin downregulated RANKLinduced osteoclast differentiation through inhibition of cFos protein proteolysis as well as inhibition of IkB degradation. Our findings indicate that genipin could be a useful drug candidate that lacks toxic side effects for the treatment of osteoporosis.