Trichomislin, a novel ribosome-inactivating protein, was cloned from the genome of Trichosanthes kirilowii Maxim. The gene was recombined to prokaryotic expression vector and the protein was purified by cation-exchange chromatography. The secondary structure of trichomislin was measured by circular-dichroism analysis and the ratios of alpha-helices and beta-sheets were calculated. Trichomislin could inhibit the synthesis of protein in rabbit reticulocyte lysate systems and its reaction mechanism was to inactivate ribosome as an rRNA N-glycosidase. Antitumor analyses indicated trichomislin induced the apoptosis and inhibited the growth of choriocarcinoma cells. Further investigation showed that trichomislin could bind to and enter choriocarcinoma cells, and then increase the caspase-3 activity in a time-dependent manner. At the same time, the concentration of cytochrome c in cytosol increased while that in mitochondria decreased. These results suggested that trichomislin induced apoptosis by releasing cytochrome c from mitochondria which then triggered the caspase family member activation.