Syringic acid, a natural product isolated and purified from the herbs of Michelia spaerantha C.Y.Wu, is an antimitogenic and chemo-sensitizing agent for human colorectal cancer, reduces oxidative stress and neuronal degeneration in treatment of cerebral ischemia and pretreatment of spinal cord ischemia/reperfusion, and exerts its chemotherapeutic and chemo-sensitizing effects through an array of mechanisms including cell-cycle arrest, apoptosis induction, inhibition of cell proliferation, cell migration, angiogenesis, NFκB DNA-binding and proteasome activities.