At present,the main treatment methods for diabetes are western medicines treatment,but it have some side effects,while traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) have advantages of safety,efficacy and multiple targets,and also protect the heart and kidney.It have a long history to use TCM for the therapy of diabetes in China,and through modern experiment study,TCM also showed theraputic activity in diabetes and complications.With the progress of modern research technology and methods,more and more hypoglycemic active ingredients from TCM were found including flavonoids,saponins,polysaccharides and alkaloid.It is known that TCM contain diverse constituents that can act on multiple aspects of the disease through different target,pathway,as well as TCM showed high efficiency and low toxicity.Therefore,the screening of active ingredients for the therapy of diabetes from natural products has become a hot research topic.In order to provide reference for the study of TCM theraphy of diabetes and complication,this paper systematically reviews studies of the therapeutical targets,receptors,ion channels and signaling pathways such as α-glucosidase,α-amylase,dipeptidyl peptidase-4,glucokinase,sodium-glucose cotransporter 2,protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B,peroxisome proliferator activated receptor,adenosine monophosphate activated protein kinase pathway,ATP-sensitive potassium pathway.