Abstract: Lily is a perennial herbaceous plant with ornamental, and its bulb is commonly used for food and medicine. Recently, fresh lilies gain growing favors from consumers as special vegetable. This review focuses on analyzing edible lilies bulbs from the perspective of different varieties, the detailed composition of nutrients such as carbohydrate (including bioactive polysaccharides), protein and amino acid, lipids, minerals and vitamins, summarizing the phytochemicals and biological activities involving steroid saponins (including spirostanols, isospirostanols, deformed spirostanols and furostanols), phenolic acids (including monophenolic acids, phenolic glycerides and glycosides), flavonoids (including flavonols, flavanols, chalcones, flavanones, flavanones, anthocyanins, and so on) and alkaloids (including isoquinoline, pyrroline, piperidine, and steroid glycosides). Finally, the application of lily in functional food is analyzed. Collectively, this review is capable of providing theoretical basis and research ideas for the study of lily and its non-medicinal processing and utilization.