Carbohydrates,with complex and diverse structures,exist widely in animals,plants,and microorganisms.Carbohydrates have a wide range of pharmacological activities,especially in anticoagulation,antithrombotic,blood lipid regula-tion,and immune function regulation.With the deepening of the research of carbohydrate drugs and the application of modern an-alytical technology,the detection of chemical structure,molecular weight and molecular weight distribution,and related sub-stances(impurities)of carbohydrate drugs has been developed rapidly.In this paper,the progress of carbohydrate drugs in ex-traction technology,separation and purification technology,composition analysis,content determination,and structural analysis in recent years was briefly reviewed,which provided some guidance for developing and quality control of carbohydrate drugs.