γ-Hydroxybutyric acid is an endogenous substance,which has been used in clinical practice since the 1960s,and has attracted extensive attention due to its recreational misuse.In this paper,the metabolism and transformation in vivo,properties and applications of γ-hydroxybutyric acid have been carried on the simple overview.In addition,the recent development of research in pretreatments and analysis methods for determination of GHB in biological samples has been reviewed in details, as well as the latest research progress of cut off values of γ-hydroxybutyric acid in vivo,in order to provide a reference or model for forensic science field to deal with related cases.