There are more than 400 species in the genus Corydalis,which widely distributed in the North temperate zone and southern Africa.In China,some of species of this genus have been used as folk medicine for thousands of years.Corydalis plants are rich in isoquinoline alkaloids,which were usually extracted by reflux,ultrasonic heating,wet ultrafine crushing and enzymolysis assisted technology,and separated and purified by solvent separation,silica gel column chromatography,ODS column chromatography,HPLC,ion exchange resin,HSCCC method and activity constituents guiding methods.Modern pharmacology assays have demonstrated that the alkaloids effective fractions or individual components of Corydalis possessed various pharmacological activities,such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular effects,anti-tumor,analgesic,anti-inflammatory,liver protection,anti-platelet agglutination,etc.This paper presents an overview focusing on the structural types and characteristics the of benzylisoquinoline alkaloids,pharmacological effects and extraction methods of reported Corydalis genus,which can provide a reference for the further study on the enrichment of active components and safe utilization of genus Corydalis.