Human marrow stromal cells (hMSCs) are multipotential stem cells, capable of differentiating into bone, cartilage, fat and muscle. Several recent reports demonstrated that hMSCs have been also differentiated into neural cells. However, only a few reported inducers are applicable for clinical use. This work is to explore the effects of sodium ferulate (SF) on differentiation of hMSCs into neural cells in vitro. We found that hMSCs could be induced to the cells with typical neural morphology when cultured with SF. The cells express neural proteins, such as nestin, neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). About 30% of the hMSC-derived cells expressed nestin when cultured with SF for 3 h, but no expression was detected after 24 h. The percentages of positive cells for NSE or GFAP were about 67% and 39% separately at 6 h, and reached the plateau phage after treatment with SF for 3 days. The data suggest that SF can induce hMSCs to differentiate into neural-like cells in vitro.