Abstract: Ginkgolides are the main and special ingredients of extracts of Ginkgo biloba leaves. And ginkgolides have many kinds of biological activities. There are little research on ginkgolides because of a smaller amount of ginkgolides in Ginkgo biloba leaves. In this paper,a comprehensive descriptior is made of the extraction, separation, purification and detection methods of ginkgolides. The high purity of ginkgolides could be obtained by choosing suitable solvents and extraction methods with appropriate separation ways, such as column chromatography and solvent extraction method. While higher purity of ginkgolides, even monomers of ginkgolides were obtained by crystallization process, high-speed countercurrent chromatography, which is important to pharmaceuticals industry.