BackgroundFerroptosis is a unique cell death, dependent on iron and phospholipid peroxidation, involved in massive processes of physiopathology. Tremendous attention has been caught in oncology, particularly for those therapy-resistant cancers in the mesenchymal state prone to metastasis due to their exquisite vulnerability to ferroptosis. Therefore, a therapeutical ferroptosis inducer is now underway to be exploited.ResultsA natural compound, hinokitiol (hino), has been considered to be an iron chelator. We have a novel finding that hino complexed with iron to form Fe(hino)3can function as a ferroptosis inducer in vitro. The efficiency, compared with the same concentration of iron, increases nearly 1000 folds. Other iron chelators, ferroptosis inhibitors, or antioxidants can inhibit Fe(hino)3-induced ferroptosis. The complex Fe(hino)3efficacy is further confirmed in orthotopic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) tumor models that Fe(hino)3significantly boosted lipid peroxidation to induce ferroptosis and significantly reduced the sizes of TNBC cell-derived tumors. The drug’s safety was also evaluated, and no detrimental side effects were found with the tested dosage.ConclusionsWhen entering cells, the chelated iron by hinokitiol as a complex Fe(hino)3is proposed to be redox-active to vigorously promote the production of free radicals via the Fenton reaction. Thus, Fe(hino)3is a ferroptosis inducer and, therapeutically, exhibits anti-TNBC activity.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13578-023-01044-0.