['Swietenia macrophylla King is a traditional herb used to treat various diseases including hypertension, diabetes and cancer. Previous study demonstrated its anti-tumor effect but the potential mechanisms have not been clearly defined. The current study was to further investigate the underlying mechanism of ethyl acetate fraction of Swietenia macrophylla (SMEAF)-induced anti-proliferative effect and apoptosis in HCT116 colorectal carcinoma cell.', 'Cell viability was evaluated in HCT116 cells by trypan blue exclusion assay. Apoptotic cell death was detected by Hoechst 33342/propidium iodide (PI) staining and intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) was analyzed by flow cytometry. The apoptotic gene and protein expression were determined by Real-time quantitative PCR (q-PCR) and immunofluorescence staining using flow cytometry, respectively.', 'SMEAF significantly inhibited HCT116 cell viability and induced apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner. SMEAF-induced apoptosis was triggered by the activation of p53 and intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Moreover, the significant increase in p53 was accompanied by a decrease murine double minute 2 (MDM2) expression. SMEAF significantly increased the expression of the Bax protein resulting in a markedly elevated Bax/Bcl-2 ratio which may have triggered the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway, resulting in caspase-3/7 and caspase-9 activation.'] Does swietenia macrophylla King induce mitochondrial-mediated apoptosis through p53 upregulation in HCT116 colorectal carcinoma cells?