Dendrobium nobile is a traditional Chinese herbal medicine. In our previous studies, alkaloids extract from Dendrobium nobile Lindl. (DNLA) showed neuro-protective activity. For example, DNLA can prevent neuronal damages induced by LPS (Li et al., 2011; Zhang et al., 2011), and oxygen-glucose deprivation and reperfusion (Wang et al., 2010), decrease neuronal apoptosis, hyperphosphorylation of tau protein (Yang et al., 2014) and Aβ deposition in rat brain (Chen et al., 2008). The present study aimed to explore the effects of DNLA in protecting neurons from Aβ25–35-induced neurotoxicity in mice, and analyzed the mechanism from the aspects of promoting the secretion of neurotrophic factors.