Epilepsy is a chronic disorder of brain, whose pathogenesis is closely related to ion channel, heredity, neurotransmit-ters, cytokine, immunity and neuroglia cells, etc. Traditional Chinese medicines ( TCMs) have made achievements in the treatment of epilepsy in recent years. The paper systematically reviewed the research situations of TCM and the combination of TCM and western medicines for the prevention and therapy of epilepsy in recent ten years. The results indicated that TCMs showed notable curative effect on epilepsy, and the pathogenesis was closely related to neuroprotection, neurotransmitters, ion channel, and relevant gene regulation, etc. The combination of TCM and western medicines can enhance the efficacy and reduce the toxicity in the treatment of epilepsy.