MINI REVIEW article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Metabolism and Chemodiversity
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1634926
This article is part of the Research TopicModern Cultivation Techniques for Medicinal Plants: Impact on Yield and Secondary Metabolite ProductionView all 4 articles
Main factors affecting the efficacy of medicinal plants during the cultivation process
Provisionally accepted
- 1Baotou Medical College, Baotou, China
- 2Inner Mongolia Key Laboratory of Characteristic Geoherbs Resources Protection and Utilization, Baotou, China
- 3Inner Mongolia Traditional Chinese & Mongolian Medical Research Institute, Hohhot, China
- 4Institute of Traditional Medicine and Technology of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The escalating global demand for safe and efficacious traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has underscored the urgent need for a stable and high-quality supply of medicinal plant resources. While large-scale cultivation offers a practical solution to alleviate the pressure on wild populations, ensuring the consistent expression of active secondary metabolites and reproducible pharmacological efficacy remains a central challenge. The biosynthesis and accumulation of these bioactive compounds are governed by a complex interplay of factors spanning all stages of cultivation and post-harvest handling. This narrative review systematically analyzes and identifies from current literature the five key dimensions influencing the therapeutic efficacy of medicinal plants: (1) production area selection, where ecological suitability shapes plant metabolic responses; (2) genetic resources, which determine the biosynthetic potential of active constituents; (3) field management practices, including nutrient regulation and cropping systems; (4) the control methods of diseases, insect pests, and weeds, integrating ecological approaches with rational chemical use to reduce residues and ensure safety; and (5) harvesting, processing, and storage techniques, which affect the stability and bioavailability of bioactive compounds. These interconnected factors collectively determine the final quality and therapeutic efficacy of medicinal plant raw materials. Coordinated management of these five dimensions is essential for establishing standardized, ecologically sustainable cultivation systems, which are crucial for ensuring quality assurance, enhancing supply chain resilience, and promoting the modernization and global recognition of TCM. This review offers a comprehensive theoretical and technical framework to guide the development of efficient medicinal plant production systems yielding materials with consistent efficacy and safety.
Keywords: medicinal plants, ecological modulators, bioactive compounds, cultivationstandardization, Quality Assurance
Received: 25 May 2025; Accepted: 01 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Zhong, Bao, Urtnasan and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Minhui Li, Baotou Medical College, Baotou, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.