Atherosclerotic diseases directly threaten people’s health and lives，and oral lipid-lowering drugs are a milestone in the therapy of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. But along with prolonging treatment by dual or combining usage of several hypolipidemic drugs，the incidence of many adverse reactions，such as hepatic injury，nephropathy damages，muscular system damage are increasing. Developing novel classes of lipid-lowering agents possessing high efficiency and fewer adverse effects have been the focus of preventing cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases all over the world. Screening the high efficient with fewer adverse effects hypolipidemic drugs from Chinese herb and formulas which has clear effect on serum lipid attracts great attention among scientists. This article reviews the progress of hypolipidemic mechanism of Chinese herb and formulas.