Abstract: Taking plant indigo extract as the research object, the research progress and trend of the detection methods for the main effective components at home and abroad were reviewed. The main components and their functions of plant indigo extract such as indigo and indirubin were summarized. The analytical examination methods of indigo extract were reviewed, mainly including high performance liquid chromatography, thin layer chromatography, thin layer scanning, dual wavelength spectrophotometry, titration analysis, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and the combination of multiple detection methods. The application of high performance liquid chromatography(selection of chromatographic column, mobile phase, detection wavelength and evaluation parameters) was emphatically analyzed. At the same time, the problems existed in the present analysis methods were analyzed, and the future development trends of the indigo extract analysis and detection were predicted.