In polymer materials, flame retardant materials are widely used, such as polyolefin, synthetic fiber, plastic, rubber and so on. At present, the flame retardant research of polymer materials mainly focuses on improving the thermal stability of materials and inhibiting the combustion of materials, and the mechanism of flame retardant materials is seldom studied. Bio-based flame retardants are a new class of flame retardants discovered in recent years, which refers to degradable, non-toxic or low-toxic flame retardants synthesized from biomass resources. Bio-based flame retardants have become one of the research hotspots in the field of polymer flame retardants because of their abundant sources, biodegradability and renewability. In this paper, bio-based flame retardant materials are divided into three categories: phenolic compounds; Finally, the future development direction of bio-based flame retardants was prospected.