[Research advance in medicinal plants from genus Coreopsis]

There are about 100 species in the genus Coreopsis which distributed in the America, south of Africa and Hawaiian Islands, and 7 species are distributed in China. The inflorescences of Coreopsis tinctoria Nutt. is the Uigur herb 'Snow chrysanthemum' which is named 'Shemuju' with the effects of heat-cleaning, detoxicating, dampness-dissipating and dysentery-curing in the Xinhua Herbal Scheme. The chemical constituents from Coreopsis plants mainly contain flavonoids, phenylpropanoids, sesquiterpenes, and sterols, which show anti-inflammatory activities in modern pharmaceutical research. This article presents an overview of the chemical constituents and pharmaceutical activities, prospects of development and exploitation of Coreopsis plants, hopefully to provide a basis for further research and development of Coreopsis plants.