Abstract: The epidemiology and relative signaling pathway of osteoporosis was introduced and the progress of natural products as the prevention and treatment agents of senile osteoporosis was summarized in this paper. The related papers of domestic and overseas during 2004 and 2014 were reviewed and the progress on the function and mechanism of natural products against osteoporosis were also summarized in this paper. These researches were mainly focusing on plant,such as Campanulaceae,Apiaceae,Asteraceae,Ranunculaceae,Fabaceae,Araliaceae,Scrophulariaceae and Berberidaceae,etc.The components from plants which can prevent and treat osteoporosis included soy flavones and isoflavone,berberin,polypeptide from cucumber seed,saponin from traditional Chinese medicine,etc. A small number of report focused on the osteoporosis prevention and treatment agents from animal origin,such as Sika deer velvet collagen hydrolysate,artificial tiger bone and chitosan from marine organism. Natural products will have a bright future in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis,the future research about the natural medicine for osteoporosis may focus on insects which rich in the hormone-like or anti-aging substances.

Key words: natural products, osteoporosis, prevention and treatment