OBJECTIVE：To study the imp rovement effects of β-boswellic acid on hippocampal neurons cells injury of rats induced by oxygen-glucose deprivation. METHODS ：The hippocampal neurons cell of rats were divided into normal control group ， model group and β-boswellic acid low-concentration ，medium-concentration and high-concentration groups （1，10，100 μmol/L）. Except for normal control group ，other groups were cultured with relevant medium and given oxygen glucose deprivation to induce oxygen-glucose deprivation induced injury model. MTT assay was adopted to detect cell viability. Chemical colorimetry was used to detect LDH activity in cell culture supernatant. Hoechst-PI staining was used to detect the morphology change of cells. Flow cytometry was used to detect early apoptosis rate of cells. The expression of apoptosis-related protein （Bcl-2，Bax and cleaved caspase-3） were detected by Western blot. RESULTS ：Compared with model group ，the survival rate of cells and protein expression of Bcl- 2 were increased significantly in β-boswellic acid medium-concentration and high-concentration groups （P＜ 0.01），while LDH activity ，early apoptosis rate ，protein expression of cleaved caspase- 3 and Bax were all decreased significantly （P＜0.05 or P＜0.01）. The densely stained nuclei and fragmentation decreased significantly. CONCLUSIONS ：β-boswellic acid can relieve oxygen-glucose deprivation induced injury of hippocampal neurons cells ，the mechanism of which may be associated with down-regulating the protein expression of cleaved caspase- 3 and Bax and up-regulating the protein expression of Bcl- 2.