OBJECTIVE：To study the effects of shikonin on autophagy and apoptosis of human colon cancer HCT 116 cells. METHODS：After treating HCT 116 cells for 48 h with shikonin at 0（blank control ）10，20，40 μg/mL，MTT method was used to detect inhibitory rate of cell proliferation. Flow cytometry was used to detect cell apoptosis rate. RT-qPCR assay and Western blotting were respectively used to detect mRNA and protein expressions of microtubule associated protein light chain 3（LC3）and autophagy-related protein Beclin- 1 and p 62. RESULTS ：Compared with blank control ，after treated with 10，20，40 μ g/mL shikonin for 48 h，proliferation inhibitory rate and apoptosis rate of HCT 116 cells were increased significantly （P＜0.05 or P＜ 0.01）. After treated with 10，20，40 μg/mL shikonin for 48 h，mRNA and protein expressions of LC 3，Beclin-1 and p 62 in HCT116 cells were increased to different extents ；except that mRNA expression of LC 3 was not increased significantly after treated with 10 μg/mL shikonin，the difference were statistically significant in other indexes ，compared with blank control （P＜0.05 or P＜0.01）. CONCLUSIONS ：Shikonin can induce the apoptosis of human colon cancer HCT 116 cells and activate its autophagy pathway.