Palmatine is a protoberberine alkaloid found in several plants including Coptis Chinensis[1] (Rhizoma coptidis, chinese goldthread), Corydalis yanhusuo,[2] Tinospora cordifolia[3] (gurjo, heart-leaved moonseed), Tinospora sagittata,[4] Phellodendron amurense[5] (amur cork tree), and Stephania yunnanensis.

[7][better source needed] It has been studied for its potential use in the treatment of jaundice, dysentery, hypertension, inflammation, and liver-related diseases.

[12][13] In addition, studies found that palmatine also inhibited the activity of lens aldose reductase,[14] sucrase and maltase.

Palmatine had significant growth inhibitory effects on seven human cancer cell lines: 7701QGY, SMMC7721, HepG2, CEM, CEM/VCR, K III and Lewis.

[19] Palmatine induced apoptosis in human skin epithelial carcinoma cells (A431) in a concentration- and time-dependent manner via damaging severely to DNA and inhibiting the activity of Bcl-2 protein.