Because of the strict restrictions on the use of chemical preservatives, these natural biological preservatives will become a hot topic in the field of food preservatives. Many plant extracts can also be used as natural food preservatives, and more than 1000 plants have been found to contain antibacterial compounds. The preservative components of plant source mainly include saponin, flavonoids, thiosulfite and glucosinolates. Although plant extracts have a long history as natural food preservatives, due to the complexity of natural extracts, the separation and identification, mechanism and antibacterial activity of the effective components of these plant derived natural food preservatives still need a lot of in-depth work.