Medicinal plants are renowned for their strong therapeutic and health benefits, with their active ingredients playing a crucial role. Among these active ingredients, sugar components have emerged as the main focus of research in recent years due to their diverse medicinal properties including antioxidant, anti-tumor, immune-boosting, antibacterial, anticoagulant and blood sugar lowering effects. However, the complexity and diversity of sugar components in medicinal plants pose significant challenges in terms of comprehensive, accurate, rapid and cost-effective evaluation of their quality. This review article provides an overview of recent research progress on the extraction, purification, separation, identification and content determination of sugar components in medicinal plants over the past decade. It also discusses future prospects for achieving panoramic quantitative analysis and efficacy evaluation of sugar components in medicinal plants while providing technical guidance for precise detection of these components.
