Anthocyanins are a class of naturally occurring polyphenols which have been most widely studied in recent decades for the rapid development of relative techniques. This article first reviews the various anthocyanin resources including fruits, flowers, vegetables and beverages. Besides the direct extraction from natural resources, anthocyanins can also be obtained by semi- or total synthesis. After the introduction of new representative anthocyanins found in the past few years and the major relationships between structures and stability, modern separation and analysis technologies in related studies were summarised, which play an important role in chemical researches of anthocyanins.