Distribution patterns and industry planning of commonly used traditional Chinese medicinal plants in China

Medicinal plants are the primary material basis for disease prevention and treatment in traditional Chinese medicine(TCM).The conservation and sustainable utilization of these medicinal plants is critical for the development of the TCM industry.However,wild medicinal plant resources have sharply declined in recent decades.To ameliorate the shortage of medicinal plant resources,it is essential to explore the development potential of the TCM industry in different geographical regions.For this purpose,we examined the spatial distribution of commonly used medicinal plants in China,the number of Chinese medicinal material markets,and the number of TCM decoction piece enterprises.Specifically,multispecies superimposition analysis and Thiessen polygons were used to reveal the optimal range for planting bulk medicinal plants and the ideal regions for building Chinese medicinal material markets,respectively.Furthermore,we quantitatively analyzed mismatches between the spatial distribution of commonly used medicinal plant richness,Chinese medicinal material markets,and TCM decoction piece enterprises.We found that the areas suitable for growing commonly used medicinal plants in China were mainly distributed in Hengduan Mountain,Nanling Mountain,Wuling Mountain,and Daba Mountain areas.The Thiessen polygon network based on Chinese medicinal material market localities showed there are currently fewer markets in southwestern,northwestern,and northeastern China than in central and southern China.TCM decoction piece enterprises are concentrated in a few provinces,such as Hebei and Jiangxi.We found that the distribution of commonly used medicinal plants,Chinese medicinal material markets and TCM decoction piece enterprises are mismatched in Henan,Shaanxi,Hunan,Hubei,Zhejiang,Fujian,Chongqing,and Xizang.We recommend strengthening development of the TCM industry in Henan,Hunan,Zhejiang,Shaanxi,Hubei,Chongqing,Fujian,and Xizang;building more Chinese medicinal material markets in southwestern,northwestern,and northeastern China;and establishing medicinal plant nurseries in resource-rich provinces to better protect and domesticate local medicinal plants.

Anemone medicinal plants:ethnopharmacology,phytochemistry and biology

The Ranunculaceae genus Anemone(order Ranunculales),comprising more than 150 species,mostly herbs,has long been used in folk medicine and worldwide ethnomedicine.Various medicinal compounds have been found in Anemone plants,especially triterpenoid saponins,some of which have shown anti-cancer activities.Some Anemone compounds and extracts display immunomodulatory,antiinflammatory,antioxidant,and antimicrobial activities.More than 50 species have ethnopharmacological uses,which provide clues for modern drug discovery.Anemone compounds exert anticancer and other bioactivities via multiple pathways.However,a comprehensive review of the Anemone medicinal resources is lacking.We here summarize the ethnomedical knowledge and recent progress on the chemical and pharmacological diversity of Anemone medicinal plants,as well as the emerging molecular mechanisms and functions of these medicinal compounds.The phylogenetic relationships of Anemone species were reconstructed based on nuclear ITS and chloroplast markers.The molecular phylogeny is largely congruent with the morphology-based classification.Commonly used medicinal herbs are distributed in each subgenus and section,and chemical and biological studies of more unexplored taxa are warranted.Gene expression profiling and relevant "omics" platforms could reveal differential effects of phytometabolites.Genomics,transcriptomics,proteomics,and metabolomics should be highlighted in deciphering novel therapeutic mechanisms and utilities of Anemone phytometabolites.

Rhizosphere Microbiota and Microbiome of Medicinal Plants: From Molecular Biology to Omics Approaches

The rhizosphere is a narrow region of soil that is directly influenced by roots and associated soil microorganisms. Research on rhizosphere microbes of various medicinal plants is essential for microbial ecology, applied microbiology and industrial biotechnology with regard to the sustainable utilization of Chinese medicinal resources. However, the inability of culturing most rhizosphere microorganisms （around 99%） in the laboratory obviates the research progress. In recent years, there is enormous advances in applying non-culturing techniques based on molecular biology and omics to the study of rhizosphere microbial diversity and plant-microbe interactions. DGGE, T-RFLP, ARDRA, DNA cloning and Sanger sequencing are still useful in the rhizosphere studies, while various omics tools, such as FISH, SIP, microarray, next generation sequencing （NGS）, etc., evolve quickly to provide more comprehensive understanding of the rhizosphere microbiota and microbiome. Flexible applications of NGS technologies are here exemplified, e.g., amplicon sequencing, metagenomic sequencing, whole genome sequencing, and transcriptome sequencing, which address the biology and biotechnology potentials of the rhizosphere microbiome of medicinal plants. This review discusses recent findings and future challenges in the study of rhizosphere microbes, highlighting medicinal plant rhizosphere study, evolution of research methods, and innovative combinations of novel high-throughput techniques. The top-down approaches such as metagenomics and bottom-up approaches targeting individual species or strains should be integrated and combined with modeling approaches to afford a wide-ranging understanding of the microbial community as a whole.

Deep in shadows:Epigenetic and epigenomic regulations of medicinal plants

Around 60%of the extant plants have medicinal and health-promoting values.Genuine medicinal material(geoherb)is produced in particular geographic regions,that is defined ecological environment and cultivation pipeline.The clinical efficacy of a geoherb is superior to that of the same medicinal plant growing in other regions.The special medicinal features of a plant are determined by its genome,while the proper ecological conditions have major effects on the formation of a geoherb,which is at least partially mediated by the epigenetics.By epigenetics/epigenomics,researchers uncover the complexities of the influence of the environment on the expression of genes that control medicinal plant growth,development,stress responses,and medicinal phytometabolite yield,and put the other"omics layers"in a meaningful biological context.The unique phenotypes of geoherb are closely related to the growth,development,and stress responses of medicinal plants.In addition to the commonly known genetic control,epigenetic machineries,active at the population level,play an essential role in the formation of geoherbs.This contribution gives a comprehensive overview of the epigenetic regulation of medicinal plants,and the associated microbes,and the role of DNA methylation,small non-coding RNA,transposable elements,and histone modifications in the gene expression regulation of geoherbs and relevant microbiota.The epigenetic and epigenomic mechanisms should be highlighted in the study of specific phenotype and indigenousness of geoherbalism.Revealing the correlation between epigenetics and geoherbs could shed light on the quality assessment,authentication,molecular breeding,and sustainable utilization of medicinal plants and the associated microbes.

Pharmaceutical resource discovery from traditional medicinal plants:Pharmacophylogeny and pharmacophylogenomics

The worldwide botanical and medicinal culture diversity are astonishing and constitute a Pierian spring for innovative drug R&D.Here,the latest awareness and the perspectives of pharmacophylogeny and pharmacophylogenomics,as well as their expanding utility in botanical drug R&D,are systematically summarized and highlighted.Chemotaxonomy is based on the fact that closely related plants contain the same or similar chemical profiles.Correspondingly,it is better to combine morphological characters,DNA markers and chemical markers in the inference of medicinal plant phylogeny.Medicinal plants within the same phylogenetic groups may have the same or similar therapeutic effects,thus forming the core of pharmacophylogeny.Here we systematically review and comment on the versatile applications of pharmacophylogeny in(1)looking for domestic resources of imported drugs,(2)expanding medicinal plant resources,(3)quality control,identification and expansion of herbal medicines,(4)predicting the chemical constituents or active ingredients of herbal medicine and assisting in the identification and determination of chemical constituents,(5)the search for new drugs sorting out,and(6)summarizing and improving herbal medicine experiences,etc.Such studies should be enhanced within the context of deeper investigations of molecular biology and genomics of traditional medicinal plants,phytometabolites and metabolomics,and ethnomedicine-based pharmacological activity,thus enabling the sustainable conservation and utilization of traditional medicinal resources.

Back to beginning:Searching for Rosetta Stone of enhancing herbal medicine quality

Chinese herbal medicines(CHMs)are an integral part of ecosystem service for humankind and represent one of most important bioresources in our planet,in which nature’s ability is fully unlocked to prevent/treat human diseases.From the world-wide research and practice in recent years,we can feel that the process of globalization of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)is accelerating;especially since the outbreak and spread of COVID-19 since December 2019,the world has gained more recognition of its important/unique values.