Abstract:Objective: To observe the effect of caffeic acid, seopoletin and scutellarin on rat retinal neurons in vitro and explore neu-roprotection in glaucoma of Erigeron breviscapus. Method: The retinal of 18 post-natal 2-3 days Sprague-Dawley rats were dissociated into cell suspension with trypsin digestion. The cell suspension was implated in 96-well culture plates covered with hyaluronic acid and laminin in each well. After culturing for 3 days, caffeic acid, seopoletin and scutellarin were added to the cultures, continue to culture 2 days. Then, the A of living cells in each well was tested by M‘lT colorimetric microassay. Some of the 5-day culture cells were identified by Nissel technique. Result: Most of the living cells were retinal neurons by Nissel identification. The number of living cells increased significantly in high concentrations of caffeic acid, seopoletin and scutellarin compared with control group(P< 0.05,P< 0.01) . Conclusion: caffeic acid, seopoletin and scutellarin can all promote retinal neurons to live in vitro, with caffeic acid being most effective.