Notoginsenosides, the
saponins extracted from
Panax notoginseng, have many pharmacological effects, such as anti-
inflammation, anti-
oxidation, anti-
tumor,
nervous system and
cardiovascular system protection,
microcirculation improvement and
calcium overload inhibition. At present, notoginsenosides are widely used clinically for treating many
diseases with good
efficacy, especially for
nervous system diseases such as
stroke,
stroke sequelae and
Alzheimer's disease. In recent years, the mechanism underlying their
neuroprotective effect has been continuously explored. To advance the
applied research on notoginsenosides in the prevention and
treatment of
central nervous system diseases, this
paper, combined with the latest
reports, summarizes their
neuroprotective effect and mechanisms in terms of regulating voltage-gated
ion channels, protecting
nerve cells and neurovascular unit, inhibiting
oxidative stress and inflammatory reaction, promoting
angiogenesis and reducing excitatory neurotoxicity. Although the protective mechanism of notoginsenosides for the
nervous system mainly involves the above several aspects, some of them still remain to be fully elucidated, which necessitates the further exploration of
neuroprotective effect of notoginsenosides with
molecular biology,
metabolomics,
proteomics and other
technologies.