Membrane separation, as an efficient and green technology, has found more and more research and development reports in the separation and purification of the effective parts and components of traditional Chinese medicine. The basic principle and mechanism was first described in this paper, and the applicability and technological advantage was analyzed accordingly. Then, the separation performance of commonly employed membrane materials including polymeric materials such as polysulfones, cellulose acetate, polyacrylonitrile as well as inorganic materials was compared out and the application examples were presented. Finally, the major considerations in choosing the membrane materials were tentatively listed, including the physical and chemical stability, the flux and selectivity, membrane fouling, and pretreatment of membrane surface.