Abstract: In the intensive cultivation of rhizome medicinal plants, the continuous cropping problems such as poor growth rate, declined yield and lower quality have become important factors restricting the development of traditional Chinese medicine industry. To reduce or eliminate the obstacles and promote the development of agriculture, we sum up the causes of obstacles in medicinal plants and control measures in this review. In general, rhizosphere autotoxin enrichments, soil fertility unbalance, changes in soil enzyme activity, and microbial community variation were considered to be the main factors of continuous cropping obstacles. The commonly used measures include developing new varieties with enhanced traits and disease resistance, intercropping, reductive soil disinfestation, steaming disinfection of soil, application of biochar to soil, use of pesticides and effective microorganisms, etc. Of these, using of effective microorganisms has become one of the hotspots to reduce or eliminate continuous cropping obstacles. However, the obstacles represent the integrated effects of various factors between plants and soil, the comprehensive strategies and measures were required. Finally, we propose future research trends and strategies to reduce or eliminate the obstacles from different views.