The present study was carried out in order to assess the protective effects of calycosin-7-O-$eta$-D-glucopyranoside, isolated from Astragali radix (AR), on hyaluronidase (HAase) and the recombinant human interleukin-$1eta$ (IL-$1eta$)-induced matrix degradation in human articular cartilage and chondrocytes. We isolated the active component from the n-butanol soluble fraction of AR (ARBu) as the HAase inhibitor and structurally identified as calycosin-7-O-$eta$-D-glucopyranoside by LC-MS, IR, ${1}^H$ NMR, and ${13}^C$ NMR analyses. The $IC_{50}$ of this component on HAase was found to be 3.7 mg/ml by in vitro agarose plate assay. The protective effect of ARBu on the matrix gene expression of immortalized chondrocyte cell line C28/I2 treated with HAase was investigated using a reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and its effect on HAase and IL-$1eta$-induced matrix degradation in human articular cartilage was determined by a staining method and calculating the amount of degraded glycosaminoglycan (GAG) from the cultured media. Pretreatment with calycosin-7-O-$eta$-D-glucopyranoside effectively protected human chondrocytes and articular cartilage from matrix degradation. Therefore, calycosin-7-O-$eta$-D-glucopyranoside from AR appears to be a potential natural ant-inflammatory or antii-osteoarthritis agent and can be effectively used to protect from proteoglycan (PG) degradation.