Insights into Genus Codonopsis: From past Achievements to Future Perspectives

Abstract

Codonopsis plants, as a kind of medicinal and edible herb, have a long history of application and have been widely concerned by pharmacists and biologists. In this article, the species diversity, taxonomy and distribution, ethnic medicinal records, chemical composition, pharmacological activity, and quality evaluation methods of Codonopsis species were systematically reviewed. In addition, the research progress of Codonopsis plants using biotechnology in recent years was summarized. The phytochemistry and biological activities of Codonopsis are widely evaluated. To date, more than 350 compounds have been isolated from Codonopsis. Codonopsis pilosula polysaccharides are important functional components and biomarkers. Lobetyolin, atractylenolide III, tangshenoside I, and oligosaccharide can be considered as characteristic index components to evaluate the quality of Codonopsis plants. Although recent experimental evidence has confirmed the pharmacological value of this genus, its quality control, resource development and utilization, and active ingredient synthesis mechanisms are not well studied. In particular, molecular biology research is still in its infancy, but its application prospects are broad, and it is a hot spot for future research on Codonopsis. Therefore, it is urgent to conduct a detailed study on the single level of phytochemistry, pharmacology, and molecular biology of Codonopsis to establish a scientific evaluation system and modern medication guidelines. The multi-angle, multi-level, and multi-aspect integrated association analysis is also an inevitable trend for the future in-depth study of Codonopsis plants. This research status was summarized in order to provide a broader scientific research idea and theoretical reference for the in-depth study of Codonopsis.

Keywords:

• Chromatographic technologies
• Codonopsis
• pharmacological activity
• phytochemistry
• molecular technologies

Acknowledgments

We thank Professor Changhong Wang from the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine for providing pictures of Codonopsis pilosula plants.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2022YFC3501700), National Natural Science Foundation of China (32170402, 81874335, and 31872665), and Shanghai local Science and Technology Development Fund Program guided by the Central Government (YDZX20203100002948).