Recent studies revealed that the herb Andrographis paniculata possesses cardioprotective activities. Using neonatal rat cardiomyocytes, the cardioprotective actions of several diterpene lactones derived from A. paniculata including andrographolide, 14-deoxyandrographolide, 14-deoxy-11,12-didehydroandrographolide, and sodium 14-deoxyandrographolide-12-sulfonate were investigated. Pretreatment with andrographolide but not with the other compounds protected the cardiomyocytes against hypoxia/ reoxygenation injury and up-regulated the cellular-reduced glutathione (GSH) level and antioxidant enzyme activities. The cardioprotective action of andrographolide was found to coincide in a time-dependent manner with the up-regulation of GSH, indicating the important role of GSH. The cardioprotective action of andrographolide was also completely abolished by buthionine sulfoximine, which acts as a specific gamma-glutamate cysteine ligase (GCL) inhibitor to deplete cellular GSH level. It was subsequently found that the mRNA and protein levels of the GCL catalytic subunit (GCLC) and modifier subunit (GCLM) were up-regulated by andrographolide. Luciferase reporter assay also demonstrated that andrographolide activated both the GCLC and the GCLM promoters in the transfected rat H9C2 cardiomyocyte cell line. The 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbo-13-acetate response element or the antioxidant response element may be involved in the transactivating actions of andrographolide on the GCLC and GCLM promoters. The present study pinpoints andrographolide as a cardioprotective principle in A. paniculata and reveals its cytoprotective mechanism.