Near infrared spectroscopy in the application of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) research and production develops rapidly although started a little bit late. In recent years

the quality problem of TCM has been controversial

and TCM market is in quite a chaos. It is an effective way to take an analysis technique to identify the false and inferior Chinese medicinal materials to control the quality to improve the present situation of TCM market

and to ensure the safety of people's drug usage. As a new analysis technique

near infrared spectroscopy in the application of identification and content determination of TCM becomes more and extensive. It is a highly effective

convenient and nondestructive and environment-friendly method to perform qualitative analysis and determine the content of TCM by using NIRS. It is of great significance and value to use NIR in the qualitative identification and quantitative detection of Chinese medicine. However

the effective information extraction rate by near infrared spectrum is low

and it is relatively difficult to identify the weak signal with relatively low sensitivity

which is not suitable for trace analysis. It needs to improve in the future. In this article

the research progresses in recent years on the application of near infrared spectral analysis technology in the identification of authenticity

adulteration

production area

and variety of TCMs

and content determination were reviewed.