Abstract: Corn silk is a commonly used Chinese herbal medicine with a long history. Corn silk contains polysaccharides, flavonoids, sterols, organic acids, saponins and other active ingredients, with anti-cancer, hypoglycemic and lipid-lowering, diabetes intervention, liver and kidney protection, antioxidant, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory. However, the current utilization efficiency of corn silk resources is inferior and the development of related high value-added products is lack of depth, and in-depth analysis of the action mechanism of active components in corn silks is helpful to the utilization of corn silk resources and the development of related products. This article reviews the research progress of the component identification, separation methods and action mechanism of the active substances of corn silk, and indicate the future research directions of the basic research and application research, with a view to follow-up in-depth research and related product development for reference.