OBJECTIVE： To investigate the protective effects and its mechanism of the extract from Tibetan medicine Terminalia chebula against cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury model rats. METHODS： Totally 40 male SD rats were randomly divided into sham operation group， model group， T. chebula extract low-dose， medium-dose and high-dose groups （20， 50， 100 mg/kg）， with 8 rats in each group. Except for sham operation group， middle cerebral artery occlusion reperfusion model was induced by modified Longa suture-occluded method in other groups. Two hours after modeling， administration groups were given relevant medicine intragastrically； sham operation group and model group were given constant volume of normal saline intragastrically， once a day， for consecutive 7 d. The levels of EPCs in peripheral blood of rats were detected by flow cytometry. The modified Garcia method was used for neurological function score. TTC staining was used to detect the volume percentage of cerebral infarction in rats. HE staining was used to observe the histopathological changes of brain tissue. The MVD of cerebral infarction area was detected by Weidner assay. The levels of VEGF， VEGFR2 and NO in cerebral infraction area were determined by ELISA. RESULTS： Compared with sham operation group， EPCs level in peripheral blood and neurological function score were decreased significantly in model group （P＜0.05 or P＜0.01）. There were obvious infarction area， disordered arrangement of cells， pyknosis and lysis of some nucleus， cell body shrinkage， and significant increase in the volume percentage of cerebral infarction （P＜0.01）； MVD  decreased significantly in cerebral infarction area， while the levels of VEGF， VEGFR2 and NO increased significantly （P＜0.05 or P＜0.01）. Compared with model group， EPCs levels in peripheral blood and neurological function scores were increased significantly in T. chebula extract medium-dose and high-dose groups （P＜0.05 or P＜0.01）； infarction area of cerebral tissue was significantly reduced， necrotic cells were significantly reduced， and the volume percentage of cerebral infarction was significantly decreased （P＜0.05）； the levels of MVD， VEGF， VEGFR2 and NO in cerebral infarction area were significantly increased （P＜0.05）. CONCLUSIONS： T. chebula extract shows certain protective effect on cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury， and can promote the recovery of neurological function and the formation of cerebral microvessels and reduce the volume of cerebral infarction. The mechanism of it may be associated with the expression up-regulation of VEGF， VEGFR2 and NO.