In order to understand the research hotspots and frontier directions of Rauvolfia in the field of traditional Chinese medicine, the literature about chemical composition, pharmacological activity and clinical application were searched in CNKI and Web of Science databases. CiteSpace 6.1.R6 was used for authors and research institutions co-occurrence, keyword co-occurrence, keyword clustering and keyword timeline mapping and analysis. A total of 173 effective Chinese articles and 356 effective English articles were included, and the annual number of articles showed a fluctuating upward trend overall. The authors with the most publications in Chinese and English were CAO Fuxiang and Stockigt J, respectively. The institutions with the most publications were Central South University of Forestry and Technology and Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, respectively. The analysis of keywords showed that the research direction of Rauvolfia mainly focused on cultivation, chemical composition extraction, identification and pharmacological activity analysis. Chinese literature focused on the cultivation of various Rauvolfia. English literature focused on the extraction and identification of strictosidine synthase and other chemical components, as well as the antibacterial and antioxidant effects of pharmacological activities of various chemical components. How to rationally use the chemical components of Rauvolfia and study their pharmacological activities and clinical applications are the main trends in the future.