Phytochemical investigation of the whole plant of Filago vulgaris Lam. (Asteraceae) resulted in the isolation and characterization of seven compounds, including a rare methoxylated flavonol (araneol), tetrahydrofurofuranolignans (pinoresinol and syringaresinol), p-hydroxybenzaldehyde, vanillin, vanillic acid and scopoletin. The structures of the compounds were determined by NMR and mass spectroscopy. All compounds were first obtained from this species and reported for the genus Filago. Our results demonstrate that highly methoxylated flavonols lacking substituents on ring B and lignans can be regarded as taxonomic markers for the tribe Inuleae. The lipophilic extract of F. vulgaris was found to have antiproliferative activity against HeLa cells (62.1±0.9% inhibition at 30 μ/ml), and araneol was highly effective against this tumour cell line (IC50 8.36 μ M).