Abstract: In order to scientifically guide the establishment of safety standards for traditional Chinese medicines and rationally evaluate the safety and effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicines, method general rules and technical systems about ICP-MS, including HPLC-ICP-MS in the Chinese, American and European pharmacopoeias compared, and method systems in the pharmacopoeias and technical specifications and scopes of application in the analysis of healy metal and harmful elements and their element forms or valences about ICP-MS in traditional Chinese medicines (animal medicine, botanical medicine or mineral medicine) were reviewed. The application progress of ICP-MS in the safety evaluation and risk assessment of the inorganic components of traditional Chinese medicines, the inorganic element spectrum and quality evaluation, and the form and valence of harmful elements were reviewed by the sorting of relevant references. The application prospects of new technologies and methods in traditional Chinese medicine research were prospected (57 references cited).