Abstract: L-arabinose is low-calorie function sugar, with many physiological functions such as inhibiting the sucrose absorption, preventing blood pressure increase and diabetes, adjusting sugar and lipid metabolism, reducing fat production and facilitating proliferation of probiotic bacteria. As the people pay more and more attention on the healthcare function of food, L-arabinose will have a broad market prospect.The physical, chemical and structure property, production method, physiological function, safety, research progress, application field and market status of L-arabinose were summarized and analyzed in this paper.