Jiayao Zhou , Hongpeng Wang

Traditional Chinese Medicine Research Center, Cuixi Academy of Biotechnology, Zhuji, 311800, China
Author    Correspondence author
Biological Evidence, 2025, Vol. 15, No. 6   
Received: 06 Oct., 2025    Accepted: 13 Nov., 2025    Published: 02 Dec., 2025

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Leonurus japonicus Houtt. is a commonly used medicinal plant in traditional Chinese medicine. It contains many active ingredients, such as alkaloids, flavonoids and diterpenoids, so it is widely used in gynecology, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and anti-inflammation, etc. In recent years, multi-omics studies and molecular biology research have gradually clarified how these major active components (such as leonurine, tribulus terephthine, diterpenoids, etc.) accumulate in different organs and under different environments. At the physiological level, some key enzymes (such as ADC, UGT, and SCPL) are very important. The gene clusters they belong to have been amplified and new functions have emerged. These changes have made the synthesis of active ingredients smoother and also given them more obvious accumulation characteristics in plants. Environmental factors can also have an impact, such as pH, climate, soil and geographical location. These conditions can change the supply of substrates and the activity of enzymes, thereby affecting the content of active ingredients. The study of metabolic pathways can not only assist in molecular breeding and more precise cultivation, but also provide a scientific basis for the quality control of medicinal materials and the development of new drugs. In the future, under the perspective of systems biology, integrating multi-omics data and combining it with gene function verification and ecological adaptation research is expected to promote more efficient molecular regulation of the active components of Leonurus japonicus. At the same time, it can also facilitate the sustainable utilization of resources and the modern development of their medicinal value.

Leonurus japonicus; Accumulation of active ingredients; Physiological mechanism; Ecological regulation; Metabolic pathways