The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect and its mechanism of icaritin on basal cell carcinoma cell line A431. A431 cells were treated with icaritin at different concentrations and/or GANT 61. The viability and migration of A431 cells were assayed by CCK-8 method and Transwell assay. The expression of Hedgehog,Smo,Gli1,Bcl-2,Bax and MMP-9 was detected by qPCR and Western blot. Flow cytometry and Caspase-3 activity assay were used to investigate the effects of icaritin and/or GANT 61 on apoptosis of cells. The results showed that,both icaritin and GANT 61 could significantly inhibit the viability of A431 cells,down-regulate the expression of Hedgehog,Smo,Gli1,Bcl-2,MMP-9 and up-regulate the expression of Bax,enhance the activity of Caspase-3 and mediated the apoptosis,inhibited the migration of A431 cells. However,icaritin could not enhance these effects on the basis of Gant 61. Icaritin could promote apoptosis and inhibit migration by Hedgehog signaling pathway in basal cell carcinoma cells. These results suggest that icaritin may promote the expression of apoptotic-related factors,and mediate the apoptosis,down-regulate the expression of MMP-9,and inhibit the migration of basal cell carcinoma cells mainly by inhibiting Hedgehog signaling pathway.