In this study, we investigated the anticancer activity of a newly isolated compound from Acer tegmentosum Maxim (ATM) in HepG2 cells. This compound was isolated by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) in a butanol-soluble fraction, which was shown to have the strongest anticancer activity. The isolated compound was identified as salidroside using multiple nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques, including H-1, C-13, correlated spectroscopy (COSY), heteronuclear single quantum coherence (HSQC), and heteronuclear multiple bond correlation (HMBC), as well as electrospray ionization mass spectroscopy (ESI/MS). The activity of salidroside was evaluated in HepG2 cells by analyzing cell proliferation, cell cycle distribution, Hoechst 33342 staining, and Western blots of apoptotic regulatory proteins. The results show that salidroside, an anticancer compound from ATM, exhibits strong apoptotic activity in HepG2 cells. Therefore, ATM extracts could be used as chemotherapeutic agent to induce apoptosis in hepatoblastoma cells. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.