Background Ellagic Acid (EA) is a polyphenol present in many fruits and plant products.Several studies have reported anti-cancer properties of this naturally occurring compound.Since vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) induced angiogenesis play an important role in the growth and progression of cancer, we therefore investigated the role of EA on vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) mediated angiogenesis.Method Human umbilical vein endothelium cells (HUVECs) were cultured in vitro, and treated with 10uM EA for 24hrs in proliferation assay, wound healing assay, tube formation assay.Intracellular levels of phospho-VEGF receptor2 were tested by western blot after EA treatment.Results In proliferation assay, EA treatment group showed a normalized 570nm absorbance of 0.27±0.02 , while the number of positive control is 0.49±0.08 (p<0.05).In wound healing assay, cells with an EA treatment showed a (50.6±3.9)% of wound healed 12hrs later, while positive control is 100% healed (p<0.05).Tube formation showed a decrease of cell interaction and tube-like structures in EA treated group compared to positive control.Western blot gave great difference of intracellular p-VEGFR2 level between EA treated and untreated groups, while no difference of total VEGFR2 level is observed.Conclusions Our findings suggest that EA can significantly inhibits angiogenesis in vitro by blocking VEGF-induced VEGFR2 phosphorylation.