Abstract:Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is one of the most common microvascular complications of diabetes mellitus (DM),which is also a primary causes of end-stage renal disease (ESRD).Its pathogenic factors and pathogenesis is very complicated with various reasons. In recent years, a large number of experimental studies have shown that flavonoids of Chinese herbal medicine have significant effect in preventing and treating DN. To better understand the progress of experiments in the prevention and treatment of DN by flavonoids, the paper searched the literature nearly 10 years, summarized in terms of flavonoids classification, experimental models, the role and mechanism. The study found:in the fight against DN, the most studied is the total flavonoids, there are okra factors, breviscapine, pueraria total flavonoids, fmcl Semen flavonoids, roem leaves, green thorn fruit flavonoids, guri geraniol total flavonoids, oxytropis falcate total flavonoids, but other flavonoids is relatively small. These studies are mainly animal experiments, basically using intraperitoneal injection of STZ models or high-fat and high-carbohydrate feeding rat model to made DN model, observed indicators in blood sugar, cholesterol, kidney function-based, molecular, cellular level indicator less. Through this study, we conclude that:how to develop herbal drug flavonoids medicine is the key issue, which is under the guidance of the theoretical system of Chinese medicine, combined with modern science and technology, multi-channel, multi-level and multi-level elaborate herbal flavonoids DN material basis of prevention efficacy, mechanism of action.