Mounting evidence has suggested that paeonol possesses plenty of pharmacologic actions. Our research is to determine if paeonol can protect cultured rat hippocampal neurons from oxygen-glucose deprivation(OGD)-induced injury and elucidate the underlying mechanism. We cultivated the rat hippocampal neurons as the object of study and then established the model of oxygen-glucose deprivation. Neuronal viability was measured by the reduction of 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT), while intracellular Ca(2+) concentration was observed by fluorospectrophotometer. The binding force of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor was evaluated by liquid scintillation counting. Compared with oxygen-glucose deprivation group, paeonol treatment obviously increased cell survival rate and reduced the activity of the binding force of NMDA receptors, reversing the overload of intracellular Ca(2+). These results demonstrate that paeonol protected rat neurons from oxygen-glucose deprivation-induced injury, resulting in alleviating the morphological damage and increasing neuron viability and suggest that paeonol may exhibit its protective effect against oxygen-glucose deprivation-induced injury by targeting on NMDA receptors.