Impact of climate change on Chinese medicinal plants and adaptation strategies
Abstract
Aims: Global climate change threats to plant communities worldwide. This review explicitly narrows its scope exclusively to Chinese medicine plants (CMPs), the core raw materials for Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). CMPs are distinguished by clinical efficacy dependent on complex secondary‑metabolite mixtures, geo‑authentic (Daodi) production systems, and large‑scale industrial supply chains. Existing studies remain fragmented, most studies examine single‑factor stress, whereas few systematically link ecological shifts, phytochemical disturbance, clinical therapeutic performance, and industrial supply‑chain risks. This review synthesizes multi‑source evidence to unpack climate‑driven impacts on CMPs, highlights unresolved research limitations, and proposes tiered, evidence‑informed adaptation pathways, while explicitly distinguishing theoretical proposals, laboratory‑validated approaches and field‑proven practical solutions.
Methods: We synthesized published field surveys, controlled physiological experiments, species‑distribution modelling outputs, and post‑harvest quality assessments. Impacts were organized across three dimensions of ecological adaptability (habitat shift, population decline), phytochemical disruption (shifts in secondary-metabolism profiles), and industrial‑clinical consequences (supply volatility, altered therapeutic potency). We systematically evaluated study limitations, inconsistent empirical observations, and translational gaps between laboratory…
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