Medicinal plants are commonly employed for therapeutic purposes throughout the world. A recent National Health Interview Survey estimated that nearly 18 % of adults in the United States regularly took non-vitamin, non-mineral dietary supplements in 2012 [1]. Because of the popularity of herbal medicines, it is important to understand the chemical basis behind the purported activities of botanicals. Angelica, a member of the Apiaceae (Umbelliferae) family, is a large genus comprised of over 60 species. Members of the genus have been utilized as medicines across the world, most notably in Asia, to treat numerous ailments, including influenza, hepatitis, arthritis, indigestion, fever, and microbial infections [2]. An increasing number of studies are being conducted on a medicinally promising member of the genus, Angelica keiskei Koidzumi (Apiaceae), or ashitaba. This large leafy perennial plant native to the Pacific coast of Japan is used throughout Asia for its diuretic, laxative, stimulant, and galactagogue properties [3]. In the past decade, several active constituents representing chalcones, flavanones, and coumarins have been isolated and characterized from ashitaba, and several bioactiv-ities have been described. This review presents the current progress on ashitaba pharmacological studies, with a focus on isolated secondary metabolites, biological activity, toxicological data, and clinical relevance. Bioactive Metabolites Isolated from Ashitaba ! Chalcones Most of the literature on the bioactive metabolites from ashitaba concerns the diverse activity of various chalcones (l " Table 1 and Fig. 1), which are most abundant in the root bark of the plant [4]. Chalcones are formed from phenylpropanoid starter units, extended with three malonyl-CoA molecules. The resulting polyketide is folded by the enzyme chalcone synthase to promote Claisen condensations and subsequent enolizations [5]. Interestingly, the bioactive chalcones found in ashitaba are prenylated at the 5′-position (l " Fig. 1), indicating that these molecules have undergone multiple biosynthetic steps, travelling through the acetate, shikimate, and isoprenoid pathways.