Soil organic matter (SOM) plays a vital role in long-term carbon sequestration in forest soil systems. A stable SOM pool consists of various recalcitrant biomacromolecules which mainly come from plants, animals, fungi and bacteria. These plant- or microbe-derived organic matters in the soil have their own source-specific natural biomarkers. A review is presented here of the advancement in the research on application of plant biomarkers to the study on soil carbon recycling in the past two decades, briefing on application of plant biomarkers to determination of plant sources and decomposition degree of SOM, and introducing application of stable isotopes of plant biomarkers to quantitatively estimating cycling time of SOM. Besides, the review also introduces in detail methods for chemical analysis of plant biomarkers in the soil. Therefore, the review may serve as reference for future studies on application of plant biomarkers to researches on SOM in China.