Oridonin, a bioactive diterpenoid isolated from Rabdosia rubescens, has been found to exhibit various anti-tumor effects. In this work, to investigate its pharmacological effects on human colorectal carcinoma HCT-116 and LoVo cells, cell proliferation and apoptosis were respectively evaluated by 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, annexin V-FITC, and propidium iodide (PI) staining. Western blotting was used to detect the expression levels of Bim, Bax, Bcl-2, cytosolic cytochrome c, procaspase-9, cleaved caspase-9, procaspase-3, and caspase-3 proteins. Caspase-Glo-9 and Caspase-Glo-3 assays were applied to determine caspase-9 and caspase-3 activity. MicroRNA-32 (miR-32) expression level was detected by real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The in vivo anti-tumor effects of oridonin were evaluated using cell lines HCT-116 and LoVo xenograft model. The results indicated that oridonin effectively inhibited cell proliferation and induced apoptosis in HCT-116 and LoVo cells in a concentration-dependent manner. Oridonin treatment upregulated the expression levels of Bim, Bax, cytosolic cytochrome c, cleaved caspase-9 and cleaved caspase-3 proteins, downregulated the expression levels of Bcl-2, procaspase-9 and procaspase-3 proteins, and meanwhile obviously activated caspase-9 and caspase-3 in a dose-dependent manner in HCT-116 and LoVo cells. The results of qRT-PCR demonstrated that oridonin treatment significantly decreased miR-32 expression, and furthermore, suppression of miR-32 expression by miR-32 inhibitors augmented oridonin-mediated inhibitory and apoptotic effects in HCT-116 and LoVo cells. In vivo results indicated that oridonin administration through intraperitoneal injection suppressed tumor growth in nude mice. Therefore, these findings suggest that oridonin maybe is a potential candidate for colorectal cancer treatment.