Certain esters of dihydropyranocoumarin and dihydrofuranocoumarin alcohols have previously been shown to inhibit the cAMP-phosphodiesterase from bovine heart. We now report that these naturally occurring coumarins inhibit the high affinity (Km = 1.1 microM) cAMP-phosphodiesterase from human platelets with activities that closely correlate with those obtained using phosphodiesterase from bovine heart tissue. Additionally the coumarins inhibit the aggregation of human platelets induced with ADP, adrenaline and collagen with activities comparable to those of dipyridamole. A lack of significant correlation between these metabolic and functional activities indicates that there exist, besides cAMP-phosphodiesterase inhibition, additional mechanisms of action for the platelet aggregation inhibitory effect of dihydropyrano- and dihydrofuranocoumarins.