摘要The therapeutic efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine has been widely acknowledged due to its extensive history of clinical effectiveness.However,the precise active components un-derlying each prescription remain incompletely understood.Polysaccharides,as a major con-stituent of water decoctions-the most common preparation method for Chinese medicin-als-may provide a crucial avenue for deepening our understanding of the efficacy principles of Chinese medicine and establishing a framework for its modern development.The structur-al complexity and diversity of Chinese herbal polysaccharides present significant challenges in their separation and analysis compared to small molecules.This paper aims to explore the potential of Chinese herbal polysaccharides efficiently by briefly summarizing recent ad-vancements in polysaccharide chemical research,focusing on methods of acquisition,struc-ture elucidation,and quality control.