Abstract: In recent years, the growing global demand for Chinese herbal medicine（CHM） has led to a continually increase in planting area under CHM, and the demand for harvesting machines for Rhizome Chinese herbal medicine（RCHM） enlarges. At present, the harvesting methods of RCHM in China are still mainly manual harvesting and small ＆ medium-sized excavator harvesting. The low level of mechanization and low production efficiency have seriously restricted the development of CHM industry. This paper briefly describes the current situation of planting CHM in China, and comprehensively analyzes the application and current situation of harvesting mechanization of RCHM, as well as focus on the research on the key components of excavation mechanical structure, separation mechanical structure and conveying mechanical structure. The main existing problems of RCHM harvester is summarized: the integration of agricultural machinery and agronomy is insufficient, the enthusiasm for developing combine harvesters is not high, lack of systematic research on harvest rate and damage rate, and lack of research on intelligent regulation technology of harvesting operation. This paper expounds low-consumption and deep-excavation technology, flexible and low loss technology and intelligent control technology are the future development trend of mechanization of RCHM in China. In order to provide reference for the research of RCHM harvesters, so as to promote the further development of harvesting mechanization of RCHM.