Microecology and geoherbalism of traditional Chinese medicine

Abstract

Microecology was directly or indirectly involved in the growth and development, metabolism process, and component accumulation of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) in various ways, which affected the formation and changes of the geoherbalism of TCM. It was one of the main tasks of traditional Chinese medical microecology(TCMM) to reveal the relationship among microecological structure and its change rule and the quality effect of TCM. The heterogeneity of soil environment caused by geographical and climatic factors, as well as the discreteness limitation caused by isolation factors such as distance and host selection, were the main causes of the differentiation of microecological geography of TCM. The microecology of TCM had important influences and contributions on the distinctive origin and quality of Dao-di herbs, which was mainly reflected in the formation of excellent germplasm(including disease and insect resistance, drought resistance, salt resistance, cold resistance, etc.), the increase of yield, the formation of medicinal parts, the metabolism and accumulation of effective components, the time limit of harvesting, and the toxicity, increasing efficiency or reducing toxicity of TCM in the processing, the changes of product efficiency after introduction, and the authenticity of fungus medicine. With the vigorous development of metabonomics and modern information technology, the following aspects would become the future research trends, including the microecologically mediated biogenic pathway of chemical components, the metabolic synthesis reactor of TCM based on the microecological quantitative effect relationship, the cultivation of genuine Chinese medicine based on reconstruction of microecological structure, the origin identification barcode traceability technology, and the toxicity reduction and efficiency enhancement technology of TCM based on the microecological.