The food and medicine homologous traditional Chinese medicines (FMHCMs) have attracted great attention for their high nutritional and broad medicinal value, especially for the neuroprotective effects on nervous system. In this review, the neuroprotective constituents of FMHCMs from Leguminosae species, including Astragalus membranaceus (Astragalus membranaceus (Fisch.) Bge.), Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch. (Glycyrrhiza inflata Bat. or Glycyrrhiza glabra L.), Cassia obtusifolia L. (Cassia tora L.), Vigna umbellata Ohwi et Ohashi (Vigna angularis Ohwi et Ohashi), Glycine max (L.) Merr., Sophora japonica L., Canavalia gladiata (Jacq.) DC., Pueraria lobata (Willd.) Ohwi, and Dolichos lablab L. are summarized. As a result, 25 bioactive constituents are found to exert neuroprotective effects on nervous system through reducing oxidative stress and neuroinflammation responses, protecting nerve cell from apoptosis, and improving mitochondrial function and blood flow to the brain. The purpose of the review is to provide comprehensively and systematically information about the neuroprotective constituents of FMHCMs from Leguminosae species, and lay the basis for the future developments of FMHCMs from Leguminosae species.

Two new steroidal saponins (1 and 2) were isolated from the dried bulbs of Allium macrostemon Bunge. Their structures were elucidated by the spectral data as 26-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-5α-furost-25 (27)-ene-3β, 12β, 22, 26-tetraol-3-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl (1→2) [β-D-glucopyranosyl (1→3)]-β-D-glucopyranosyl (1→4)-β-D-galactopyranoside (1) and 26-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-5β-furost-20 (22)-25 (27)-dien-3β, 12β, 26-triol-3-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl (1→2)-β-D-galactopyranoside (2), respectively. Their cytotoxic activities on several cancer cell lines (MCF-7, NCI-H460, SF-268 and HepG2) were tested. 1 showed special cytotoxity on SF-268, while 2 showed cytotoxity on NCI-H460 and SF-268 cell lines, respectively.