ABSTRACT
Plants of the genus Salix L. are abundant in resources, consisting more than 520 species throughout the world. The bark, branches, leaves, and flowers of different Salix species are used in folk medicines with a long history. There are several kinds of chemical components in the Salix plants, such as flavonoids, salicylic acid and its derivatives, phenylpropanoids, terpenoids, anthraquinones and steroids, which have the pharmacological activities of anti-tumor, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, hypoglycemic, regulating the nervous system, promoting the lipid dissolution, etc. In the present paper, we summarize the research reports related with plants of the genus Salix from the databases of CNKI and PubMed from 2008 to 2018, and review the research progress of chemical components and pharmacological effects to provide references for the in-depth studies of medicinal active ingredients and their action mechanism on this genus, hoping to promote the further rational development and utilization of the Salix plants.