Throughout history, and for different reasons ranging from religious to scientific, artificial preservation processes of cadavers have been carried outby means of different techniques in order to preserve the macroscopic anatomical structure of organs and tissues. A bibliographic search was carried out which, after selecting the articles and abstracts published in the last 15 years, resulted in 208 articles. A historical and updated review of embalming processes and their composition, from Ancient Egypt to the present day, was carried out in order to know the advantages and disadvantages, as well as the main risks and uses of each of the formulations presented. The knowledge of the different preservation formulas and their characteristics is of great importance in centers where preservation processes are carried out, with the aim of reducing toxicity and harmful effects on the personnel in contact, while avoiding altering the physicochemical and biomechanical characteristics of the tissue.

KEY WORDS: Human anatomy; Embalming; Ancient Egypt; Formaldehyde.