Abstract: So far, lots of tests in the cigarette-manufacturing in China has proven that, different applying patterns of the filling materials of medicinal plants in cigarettes and different applying sites of the filling materials in cigarettes and their related products can cause the harm-reducing targets and the corresponding physicochemical and pharmacological mechanisms of the medicinal plants to be different, and the main mechanisms mainly involve three aspects. First, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) holds that Chinese medicinal herbs and tobacco are homologous in terms of pharmaceutical activity. The application of medicinal plants in cigarettes agrees with the smoking therapy of TCM and reflects the compatibility theory of TCM. Medicinal plants recorded in classical TCM books contain the specific medicinal plant groups to prevent, relieve or treat the smoking-induced diseases. Second, the filling materials of medicinal plants can decrease the contents of the tar, nicotine, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, nitrosamines, free radicals, volatile phenols, crotonaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide, nitric oxide, carbon monoxide, ammonia and some heavy metal elements which are produced or released by the burning cigarettes and are severelly harmful to the smokers. In addition, the specific melting points, boiling points or gasification points of the medicinal plant ingredients applied in cigarettes and the temperature conditions of the burning cigarettes jointly determine the smoke-oriented shifting feature of the ingredients, which can relieve or treat the smoking-induced respiratory tract diseases, injuries of blood vessels and cancerization, and holds the general functions to eliminate inflammation and enhance the immunity of the smokers. This paper could provide a reference for the practice of the cigarette harm-reducing mediated by medicinal plants and the research and development of the cigarettes with Chinese characteristics.