Objective To systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of magnesium isoglycyrrhizinate (MgIG) in the treatment of viral hepatitis based on clinical studies. Methods Searches were conducted in the databases of Cochrane, PubMed,Science Direct,CNKI,CMCI and Wanfang (until Dec.2016 since database setup) to identify randomized controlled tri-als (RCTs) evaluating clinical effects of MgIG vs Compound Glycyrrhizin(CG).Literatures according to inclusion and exclusion criteria were screened.All meta-analysises were conducted with RevMan version 5.3. Results A total of 3 790 patients enrolled in 32 studies were included in the meta-analysis.Firstly,the comparison of curative effect in two groups favors MgIG for the treat-ment of viral hepatitis[OR=2.87,95% CI=(2.29,3.61),P<0.000 01].Secondly,MgIG showed statistically significant benefit in reducing ALT [MD=-17.27,95%CI=(-28.87,-5.66),P=0.004],AST [MD=-14.18,95%CI=(-18.29,-10.08),P<0.000 01] and T-BiL[MD=-4.53,95%CI=(-6.38,-2.68),P<0.000 01].Lastly,comparative trials demonstrated a significant safety advantage of MgIG over CG [OR= 0.29,95%CI=(0.19,0.44),P<0.000 01]. Conclusion MgIG has a significant beneficial effect for the treatment of viral hepatitis by means of both decreasing transaminase and normalizing liver function.Fur-thermore,it is worth for the application in clinical use with less adverse drug reactions.