Helicobacter pylori (H. pylorl) infection is now established as the major pathogenic factor in chronic gastritis and peptic ulcer disease. in addition, there is accumulating evidence that H. pylori plays an important role in the process of gastric carcinogenesis. On the other hand, oriental traditional medicines have been used for stomach disease for thousands of years. In the present study, methanol extract from the stem bark of Magnolia sieboldii (M. sieboldii) and its components were investigated on their inhibitory effects against urease activity and growth of H. pylori in vitro. The methanol extract of M. sieboldii significantly inhibited the growth of H. pylori ATCC 43504 at 5 mg/ml. From the further fractionation, the chloroform fraction inhibited the bacterial growth dose-dependently. Among four fractions separated from the chloroform fraction by silica gel column chromatography, MS-C-2 was the most potent. Costunolide was isolated from the MS-C-2 subtraction by preparative TLC and recrystallization using n-hexane. Anti-H. pylori effect of costunolide was investigated using one commercial strain (H. pylori ATCC 43504) and three clinical strains (H. pylon 4, 43, 82548). Costunolide exhibited potent anti-H. pylori activity, and the MIC was around $100-200{mu}g/ml$. However, costunolide had no inhibitory effect of H. pylori urease activity at the concentration used for the growth inhibition assay. From these results, we conclude that costunolide inhibits the, growth of H. pylori by the independent manner of H. pylori urease inhibition.