Zanthoxylum bungeanum, belonging to Rutaceae family and Zanthoxylum L. genus, is one of the traditional “eight major condiments” in China, which is an important ingredient in many kinds of traditional Chinese medicines due to the functional activites of cold-dispelling, dehumidification, anaesthesia, and acesodyne. China has the highest planting area and yield of Zanthoxylum bungeanum. As the economic tree plants, Zanthoxylum bungeanum has the ecological, social, and economical benefites. Recently, the planting area of Zanthoxylum bungeanum has been increasing at the speed of 20%~30%. It has been widely accepted that Zanthoxylum bungeanum has diversely medical functions, such as antioxidant activities, insecticidal activities, anaesthesia, anti-inflammatory and analgesic, hypolipidemic, removing wrinkles, anticancer, and so on. As the special functional ingredients, alkylamide compounds (or hemp flavor substance) possess many biological properties. However, the mechanism of these biological properties were not fully understood. Therefore, Zanthoxylum bungeanum has not been fully applied in medicines and daily chemical products. This review summarizes updated researches on the main species of alkylamide compounds in Zanthoxylum bungeanum and their respective physiological functions in order to provide necessary reference for the further systematic study.