Background: Leukaemia is a complex form of blood malignancy characterized by a high mortality rate, despite significant improvement in cancer treatments. The consumption of fruits and vegetables are inversely related to the incidence and mortality of cancer, as a result of the high level of polyphenols found in some fruits that has been reported to be potentially chemotherapeutic and having a considerable effect on haematological malignancies. Objectives: To explore the effect of Imatinib, Doxorubicin, and/or polyphenols (emodin, rhein, apigenin and cis-stilbene) on the proliferation, and apoptosis of myeloid and lymphoid leukaemia cells compared to non-tumour cells. Methods: one myeloid (K562), one lymphoid (CCRF-CEM), a leukaemia cell line and one non-tumour normal cell line (CD133) were treated with Imatinib, Doxorubicin, and/or different doses of polyphenols. The activity of leukaemia cell proliferation was assessed by Cell Titer-Glo® luminescent assay; the morphological changes of apoptosis, which includes DNA fragmentation and nuclear condensation, were detected by DAPI staining. Results: Emodin, cis-stilbene, apigenin and rhein showed different levels of effect on inhibition of ATP level and inducing apoptosis in K562 myeloid cells, CCRF-CEM lymphoid cells and CD133+ normal cells when these types of polyphenols used separately and combined with Imatinib or Doxorubicin. Generally, the CCRF-CEM lymphoid leukaemia cell line was more sensitive to polyphenol treatments alone and when combined with Doxorubicin compared to the K562 myeloid leukaemia cell line and CD133+ non-tumour cells. Conclusion: These results suggest that polyphenols have different effects according to the type of cell and polyphenol. The variant effect between leukaemia cells and non-tumour cell suggests that polyphenols are a potentially therapeutic agent for leukaemia. Polyphenols can enhance the effect of chemotherapy and reduce the required dose to induce cell death in cancer cells.