Abstract: OBJECTIVE To investigate the influence of isoflavone extract from Cicer arietinum(CIE) on learning memory abilities of rats with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and discuss the possible mechanism of action. METHODS AD model rats were established by injection of lipopolysaccharides into the right hippocampus. Forty rats were allocated into five groups: high, middle and low-dose CIE group (100, 50, 25 mg·kg^-1), model group and control group (normal saline). After intragastrically administrated with different solution for 28 d, learning and memory abilities of rats were tested by Y-maze. The levels of TNF-α and IL-6 in rats’ hippocampus were detected by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS Compared with control group, the learning and memory abilities of model group rats decreased obviously with counts of attempts were significantly increased(P<0.01). The expressions of TNF-α and IL-6 in model group rats’ hippocampus improved significantly(P<0.01). After intragastrically administrated with different doses of CIE, the counts of attempts in learning and memory ability tests and expressions of TNF-α and IL-6 were lower than these in model group with a slightly dose-dependent manner. Especially in the middle-dose CIE group and high-dose CIE group, the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05 or P<0.01). CONCLUSION CIE can significantly improve the learning and memory abilities of AD model rats. Its mechanism may be related to inhibition of the expression of TNF-α and IL-6 in the AD rats’ hippocampus to restrain the inflammatory response.