Antioxidant part of Astragali Radix was determined with an oil stability index (OSI) method. An experimental atherosclerosis in quails was established to observe the effects of the antioxidant part of Astragali Radix and its combination with Panax notoginseng saponins (PNS). After 8 weeks of feeding with the antioxidant part of Astragali Radix and its combination with PNS, the total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low density lipoprotein (LDL-C), high density lipoprotein (HDL-C), total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and malondialdehyde (MDA) in serum were measured. The results show that, compared with atherosclerosis (AS) model quails, the serum TG, TC, LDL-C, MDA are obviously lower (P<0.1) while T-AOC, SOD are totally opposite, indicating that the antioxidant part of Astragali
Radix and its combination with PNS have good effects in antiAS.