Abstract: As one of five basic tastes,umami plays an important role in the taste and people’s evaluation of food. This article takes umami as the central,some foods which are rich in umami introduced and several newer extraction methods of umami from macro perspective are summartzed. In addition,this article also summarizes some amino acids,nucleotides,peptides,organic acids and bases which are rich in umami from micro perspective. Two basic umami receptor proteins umami perception and umami synergy are briefly described,and the umami taste mechanism is analyzed from two aspects. The commonly measurement and analysis methods of umami are summarized(sensory evaluation,high performance liquid chromatography,capillary electrophoresis,and relatively new biological and chemical sensor methods). It is expected to provide a theoretical reference for the further study on the excavation,esthesia and detection of umami substances in food.