Osteoarthritis is a major disabling disease in clinical orthopedics. Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common orthopedic disease characterized by degenerative changes in articular cartilage and increased friction in the joints, leading to joint pain, swelling and deformity. At this stage, studies have shown that a variety of cytokines that cause localized inflammation in the joints are released during the development of osteoarthritis, among which interleukin-1β (IL-1β) is one of the main factors that accelerate the development process of osteoarthritis. Currently, Western medicine has limited methods for treating osteoarthritis, whereas traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) treats osteoarthritis with multi-targets, advantages such as good efficacy and few side effects. In this paper, we summarize the relationship between IL-1β and osteoarthritis, and review the modern research on the intervention of Chinese medicine in the treatment of osteoarthritis with IL-1β in the past five years, in order to lay an experimental foundation for the exploration of the pathological mechanism of osteoarthritis based on IL-1β, and provide a new method and research ideas for the prevention and treatment of osteoarthritis as well as the research and development of related drugs.