Antimicrobial peptides ( AMPs) are critical component of the innate immune system of organisms, and have been demonstrated with the activity against a variety of microorganisms including bacteria, yeast, fungi, viruses and even tumor cells.Broad-spectrum activity and low propensity for resistance development make the AMPs as a kind of great potential for development of new anti-infective agents.In this paper, the origins, the action, the mechanism, the application prospects are reviewed.