Eugenol (4-allyl-2-methoxyphenol) is a phenol derivative and generally used in dental treatment. A few investigator reported that eugen이-induced C)πoto잉city by apopto디c pathway, but it is not yet well understood In the present study, to investigate the eugenol-induced cytoto잉city by apoptosis, we have examined the apoptotic molecules and pathway in primary human gingival fibroblast (HGF) and human salivary gland cells (HSG). To identify apoptotic cell death, 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2 ,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) reduction assay with or without N-acetylcysteine (NAC), and the morphological study by propidium iodide (pI) staining were screened. And to investigate the apoptotic pathway, reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for apoptotic molecules and caspase aαivity assay were performed. Both M1T reduction assay and an addition of NAC showed that eugenol act as a pro-oxidant led to cell death. With the morphological study, both cells showed apoptotic change by nuclear fragmentation and/or chromatin condensations. With the apoptotic machinery study, the Bax and Bcl-2 mRNA expression were not detected in HGF. But, for HSG, the increased expression of Bax with decreased of Bcl-2 was observed. And the expression of Apaf-l was not detected or nα significantly increased in HGF and HSG, respectively. With measure of caspase activity, there was no change of caspase activities in HGF. But, for HSG, there was decrease of caspase 9 activity and increased caspase 3 activity. We suggest eugenol-treated HGF underwent apoptosis independent of Bcl family and caspase. However, for eugenol-πeated HSG, apoptosis occurred via Bcl famiIy and caspase pathway.