Aqueous extracts of Cochlospermum planchonii Hook.f. (Cochlospermaceae) rhizomes are used by native medical practitioners in northern Nigeria to treat jaundice. An extract prepared by a laboratory adaptation of their method was hepatoprotective in carbon tetrachloride-treated rats (CCl4), and it inhibited cytochrome P-450 enzymes, which constitutes a plausible hepatoprotective mechanism. A crystalline inhibitor (0.3% of dry weight of rhizomes) was isolated using inhibition of two rat cytochrome P-450 enzymes, aminopyrine-N-demethylase and aniline hydroxylase, as bioassays to guide fractionation by solvent partitioning, polyamdie column chromatography, preparative thin layer chromatography and fractional crystallization. The inhibitor was identified as zinc formate by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and comparison with synthetic material by power X-ray diffraction crystallography. Synthetic and plant-derived zinc formate were equally effective as inhibitors of cytochrome P-450 enzymes and as hepatoprotective agents in carbon tetrachloride-treated rats. Cochlospermum planchonii rhizomes contain unusually high levels of manganese and zinc, although much higher levels have been observed in plants considered to be hyperaccumulators of these metals.