Objective To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of edaravone combined with Xingnaojing injection in the treatment of adult acute cerebral infarction. Methods Databases including PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library, CBM, CNKI, VIP and WanFang Data were searched from inception to March 2012 to identify the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on edaravone combined with Xingnaojing injection for adult acute cerebral infarction. Two reviewers independently selected the literature, extracted the data and assessed the methodological quality of the included RCTs, and then meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.0 software. Results A total of 9 RCTs involving 1 098 patients were included. The results of meta-analyses showed: a) The edaravone combined with Xingnaojing injection group was superior to the Xingnaojing injection group with significant differences in the effective rate (OR=3.43, 95%CI 2.44 to 4.82, Plt;0.000 01), significantly-effective rate (OR=2.33, 95%CI 1.78 to 3.05, Plt;0.000 01), mortality (OR=0.38, 95%CI 0.15 to 0.95, P=0.04), ESS score after treatment (7 days after treatment: SMD=–0.48, 95%CI –0.80 to –0.17, P=0.003; 14 days after treatment: SMD=–0.89, 95%CI –1.17 to –0.62, Plt;0.000 01; 1 month after treatment: SMD=–0.89, 95%CI –1.20 to –0.59, Plt;0.000 01) and NDS score after treatment (7 days after treatment: MD=10.42, 95%CI 4.78 to 16.05, P=0.000 3; 14 days after treatment: MD=13.82, 95%CI 12.86 to 14.79, Plt;0.000 01; 21 days after treatment: MD=10.33, 95%CI 4.43 to 16.23, P=0.000 6); and b) The edaravone + Xingnaojing injection + conventional therapy group was superior to the conventional therapy group with significant differences in the effective rate (OR=3.03, 95%CI 1.36 to 6.73, P=0.006), significantly-effective rate (OR=2.86, 95%CI 1.50 to 5.44, P=0.001) and ESS score after treatment (7 days after treatment: MD=–6.26, 95%CI –8.49 to –4.03, Plt;0.000 01; 14 days after treatment: MD=–6.43, 95%CI –8.73 to –4.13, Plt;0.000 01). Conclusion Current evidence shows edaravone combined with Xingnaojing injection is obviously superior to either Xingnaojing injection or conventional therapy for adult acute cerebral infarction. But this conclusion still needs to be further proved by more high-quality and large-scale RCTs because of the low quality of the included studies.