Abstract: An aging society is coming in China with more and more serious problems such as osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. Glucosamine is one of important components from proteoglycan in human articular cartilage matrix, which can improve articular cartilage metabolism and promote bone and joint health. Commercially available glucosamine usually exists in the form of glucosamine hydrochloride, glucosamine sulfate and their double salts, and produced through acid and enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation. Clinical studies have shown that it has high safety with no serious adverse reactions found and exhibits the health functions of promoting bone and joint health, antioxidation, regulating immunity, resisting bacteria and inflammation, etc. In health food, research in glucosamine is often focused on promoting bone health. In this article, the health functions, preparation techniques, safety and use of glucosamine are reviewed, while suggestions are given to improve the quality standard and production techniques due to no specific quality standard and standardized production process of glucosamine currently available, aiming at providing a reference for the development, supervision and regulation of glucosamine-based health foods.