Methanol extracts from 450 plants were screened for muttidrug-resistance reversing activity using drug sensitive KB-3-1 and multidrug-resistant KB-Vl cells. Among them, the extracts of Cynanchum wilfordii, Torilis japonica, Celastrus orbiculatus, Melia toosendan and Teminialia chebula strongly potentiated vinblastine cytotoxicity in KB-Vl cells. But their cytotoxicities to both sensitive KB-3-1 and resistant KB-Vl cells were in the same order of magnitude. These results indicate that the above samples would contain the active principles which do not exert their ativity solely by cytotoxicity.