Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most common type of carcinoma and the 5th leading cause of cancer-related death in males. Triptolide, is a main and effective component of Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F, which exerts an broad-spectrum anti-malignant tumor function. However, the effect of triptolide on migration and invasion of human prostate cancer cells is still poorly understood. In this study, we demonstrated that triptolide significantly inhibited the proliferation, migration and invasion of prostate cancer cells in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Caveolin-1 (Cav-1) is regarded as a major structural protein of caveolae and participated in lipid transport, signal transduction and tumor progression. Triptolide treatment inhibited the expression of tumor promoter Cav-1 and reduced CD147 and MMPs activities at both mRNA and protein levels. Meanwhile, triptolide treatment combined with Cav-1 knockdown in PCa cells enhanced the effects of anti-migration and anti-invasion, and those effects were restored following Cav-1-rescued. Together, our research indicates that triptolide represses the migration and invasion through Cav-1/CD147/MMPs pathway in PCa cells, which gives a better understanding of triptolide in clinical aggressive prostate cancer therapy.