Luxiancao is a new medicine for liver cancer, and is purely natural botanical It has good curative effects and few side effects. The curative mechanism of Luxiancao is unknown. In the present paper, the authors used a 514. 5 nm laser to measure the changes in the Raman spectrum of liver cancer cells (SMMC-7721) treated by Luxiancao at different concentrations. The study can help us know more about the mechanism, efficiency and side effects of Luxiancao. The results show that significant changes were observed in the cells' Raman spectra after reacting with Luxiancao. The intensities at 785 and 1 092 cm(-1), corresponding to DNA phosphate backbone vibration, were reduced; and the Raman bands for the bases A and G at 1 312 and 1585 cm(-1) also decreased, indicating that Luxiancao may be inserted in DNA bases and influence the DNA replications, resulting in the reduction in DNA content and breaking of the DNA strands. Besides, the intensity of 1 360 cm(-1), belonging to Trp, decreased gradually and disappeared in the end, indicating the Trp of cancer cells began to be exposed when adding in Luxiancao. The bands at 1 004 cm(-1) for Phe and 1 656 cm(-1) for proteins alpha-helix also decreased, suggesting that there were changes in the structure of protein and circumstance of amino acid. Moreover, the effects on cancer cells were enhanced gradually with the HCPT concentration increasing. Since a Raman spectrum is a chemical fingerprint of a sample, the different concentration dependent changes in the Raman spectra of individual cells due to reacting with Luxiancao can overcome the limitations of other detection systems used for quantitative and qualitative analysis of the drug.