Objective: To study the effect of rare-earth elements La3+and Ce3+ on callus growth and oridonin and ponicidin in Rabdosia rubescens. Method: The uniform callus of R. rubescens was cultivated in different concentration of La3+or Ce3+ in culture medium

and the gravimetric method was used for the determination of callus fresh weight and cell growth curve; HPLC method was used for the determination of oridonin and ponicidin content. Result: The supreme biomass of callus was 2.4 times of blank conditions when CeCl3·7H2O concentration was 1 μmol·L-1. Blank and the control conditions of oridonin content were 0; ponicidin was the lowest with 0.11% at blank condition;the ponicidin concentration increased as Ce3+ increasing

it was up to 0.58% when Ce3+ concentration was 10 μmol·L-1 while the ponicidin concentration decreased as La3+increasing

the content was 0.44% when La3+ concentration was 0.1 μmol·L-1. Conclusion: 0-10 μmol·L-1 La3+ and Ce3+ promoted R. rubescens callus biomass accumulation and ponicidin synthesis

didn't promote the synthesis of oridonin

the CeCl3·7H2O concentration of 10 μmol·L-1 was the selection of optimum conditions.