Cordyceps sinensis, also called DongChongXiaCao (winter worm summer grass) in Chinese, is a well-known and valued traditional Chinese medicine. In 2006, we wrote a review for discussing the markers and analytical methods in quality control of Cordyceps (J. Pharm. Biomed. Anal. 41 (2006) 1571-1584). Since then this review has been cited by others for more than 60 times, which suggested that scientists have great interest in this special herbal material. Actually, the number of publications related to Cordyceps after 2006 is about 2-fold of that in two decades before 2006 according to the data from Web of Science. Therefore, it is necessary to review and discuss the advanced development in chemical analysis of Cordyceps since then.