Polysaccharides with multiple biological activities and health benefit effects are usually considered as one of the major function components in food and medicine dual purposes Chinese herbs (FMDPCH). With the increasing interest in the utilization of FMDPCH, their quality control is very important for ensuring their safety and efficacy. To date, there is no report focus on the analysis of polysaccharides in FMDPCH. Herein, advanced development for quality control approaches, including sample preparation, separation and fraction, qualitative and quantitative analysis, of polysaccharides in MPDPCH were reviewed and discussed. Especially, discrimination and quantification of polysaccharides, respectively, based on novel saccharide mapping and universal refractive index increment were focused. Besides, the perspective for the characterization of polysaccharides has also been described.