Progress on medicinal plant regeneration and the road ahead

Abstract

Medicinal plants, which are valuable to human beings, play indispensable roles in various fields, such as health care, health promotion, and quality of life enhancement. They are not only pillars of traditional medicine but also valuable sources of modern pharmaceutical research and innovation. Although China has a rich variety of medicinal plants, in recent years, the drastic reduction in wild medicinal plant resources due to over-exploitation and over-utilization has affected the quality of Chinese herbal medicine. Therefore, the development of efficient in vitro regeneration culture technology for medicinal plants is particularly urgent. Here, the main regeneration pathways of medicinal plants are discussed, scientific progress of medicinal plant regeneration culture reviewed, and the main factors affecting the regeneration of medicinal plants analyzed, including the molecular mechanism of phytohormones in inducing the regeneration process, as well as the challenges faced by medicinal plant regeneration technology and directions for future development. Moreover, the challenges and future directions of medicinal plant regeneration technology are summarized, allowing us to find new ideas for the establishment of regeneration systems for rare and endangered medicinal plants, the screening of new regeneration-promoting drug molecules, and the preservation of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and its innovation.

Keywords

• medicinal plants
• regeneration pathways
• influencing factors
• molecular mechanisms
• challenges and perspectives