This study explored the chemical components of fruits of the Chinese medicine Amomum tsao-ko through systematic separation.Various column chromatography techniques were used to separate and purify the ethanol extract and the structure of the compounds was identified mainly by spectral analysis.The inhibitory activity of the compounds on α-glucosidase was also studied by a PNPG method.The 11 compounds isolated from the ethyl acetate extract of the ethanol extract of the fruits of Amomum tsao-ko were named (R)-1-(1-ethoxypropyl)-3,5-dimethoxyphenol (1),(R)-1-(3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl)propan-1-ol (2),4-hydroxy-3-methoxypropiophenone (3),apocynin (4),4-methyl-2,6-dimethoxyphenol (5),4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde (6),1-terpinen-4-ol (7),methyl (9S,10R,11E,13R,15Z)-9,10,13-trihydroxyoctadeca-11,15-dienoate (8),methyl (9S,10R,11E,13R)-9,10,13-trihydroxyoctadec-11-enoate (9),amomutsaoko A (10) and renealtin A (11).Compound 1 is a phenolic compound and first reported as a natural product,compounds 10 and 11 have stronger inhibitory activity against α-glucosidase than acarbose.