To study the combination effects of glycometabolic regulator NaF and elicitor methyl jasmonate (MJ) on cephalotaxine production in Cephalotaxus mannii suspension cultures, NaF of 10 mg/L, MJ of 100 mu mol/L or both of them (NaF + MJ for short below) were added to the shake-flask cultures of C. mannii cell. It was found that NaF increased the activity of glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH), but had no significant effects on phenylalanine ammonium-lyase (PAL) activity and phenols formation. In contrast, MJ could activate PAL activity and led to phenols accumulation, but had no significant effects on G6PDH activity. To explore the effects of NaF and MJ on cephalotaxine biosynthesis, harringtonine and homoharringtonine, the two cephalotaxines, were analyzed in this work. The results obtained indicated that NaF + MJ treatment showed the strongest promotion of production in all tests. Harringtonine yield in NaF + MJ treated cells (7.245 mg/L) was 4.8-fold higher than that in control cells (1.506 mg/L), 1.7-fold that in NaF-treated cells (4.12 mg/L) and 1.6-fold that in MJ-treated cells (4.458 mg/ L), respectively. No homoharringtonine was found besides in NaF + MJ treated cells (0.491 mg/L). With respect of the product release rates, they were 0%, 78%, 24% and 62% in control, NaF,. MJ and NaF + MJ treatment, respectively. These results suggest that the combination of NaF and MJ had contributed to the synthesis and secretion cephalotaxine in C mannii cells. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.