The incidence of ulcerative colitis(UC) is gradually increasing,and the medical burden is becoming increasingly heavy.The disease has a latent onset and the public′s awareness is low.In clinical treatment,it is easy to miss the best intervention period,which seriously affects the patients′ life,health and quality of life.Currently,the treatment of UC mainly relies on symptomatic treatment,and new and effective treatment methods urgently need to be sought.The polysaccharides of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM),due to their multi-components,multi-targets and multi-acting mechanisms,show great potential in treating ulcerative colitis.Therefore,the author systematically searched the databases such as CNKI,Wanfang,VIP,PubMed and other domestic and foreign scholars′ published research literature on the clinical application and pharmacological mechanism of TCM polysaccharides in the past ten years.This article summarizes and elaborates on how TCM polysaccharides improve ulcerative colitis by regulating immunity and improving intestinal inflammatory responses,protecting intestinal mucosal barriers,reshaping intestinal flora,antioxidizing stress,and regulating programmed cell death,etc.At the same time,the molecular targets or signaling pathways of TCM polysaccharides in improving ulcerative colitis are summarized,in order to provide references for the basic research,drug development and clinical application of TCM polysaccharides in treating ulcerative colitis.