International Journal of Molecular Medical Science, 2025, Vol.15, No.2, 69-79 http://medscipublisher.com/index.php/ijmms 69 Research Insight Open Access Research Progress on the Main Active Ingredients and Pharmacological Mechanisms of Food-Medicine Homologous Substances YanLou Physicov Med. Tech. Ltd., Zhejiang, Zhuji, 311800, Zhejiang, China Corresponding email: yan.lou@cuixi.org International Journal of Molecular Medical Science, 2025, Vol.15, No.2 doi: 10.5376/ijmms.2025.15.0007 Received: 13 Jan., 2025 Accepted: 28 Feb., 2025 Published: 18 Mar., 2025 Copyright © 2025 Lou, 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. Preferred citation for this article: Lou Y., 2025, Research progress on the main active ingredients and pharmacological mechanisms of food-medicine homologous substances, International Journal of Molecular Medical Science, 15(2): 69-79 (doi: 10.5376/ijmms.2025.15.0007) Abstract This study analyzed the active ingredients and their mechanisms of action of substances with the same origin as food and medicine. Research has found that effective components such as phenolic substances and polysaccharides have the function of disease prevention, mainly exerting their effects through antioxidant and anti-inflammatory measures, as well as regulating cell activities. These components exhibit multiple effects in aspects such as anti-cancer and heart protection. The processing technology and the way of ingredient combination will affect the final effect. The effect is better when different ingredients are used together. Although the application prospects are broad, problems such as how to formulate unified standards and ensure safety still need to be solved. This article aims to sort out the latest research results and provide theoretical references for the development of healthy food. Keywords Food-medicine homologous substances; Bioactive components; Pharmacological mechanisms; Functional foods; Nutraceuticals 1 Introduction Food and medicine homologous substances (FMH) refer to natural materials that can be both eaten and have medicinal value. This concept originated from traditional Chinese medicine, which holds that certain foods have therapeutic functions while serving as a daily diet. This type of substance combines diet and medicine organically through the dual characteristics of nutritional supplementation and pharmacological effects (Hou and Jiang, 2013; Yuan et al., 2023). In traditional applications, FMH has long been used for disease prevention and treatment. For example, Dendrobium huoshan is rich in components such as polysaccharides and has the functions of inhibiting tumor growth and regulating immunity (Gao et al., 2022). Coix seed, as a typical representative, its anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory effects have been confirmed by modern research (Zeng et al., 2022). Modern research has verified these traditional effects by analyzing the active ingredients. The complex components of FMH were studied using modern analytical methods to provide a theoretical basis for the development of new drugs (Noor et al., 2022). This study explored the active ingredients and mechanism of action of FMH, and in combination with the latest research progress, understood the application value of food and medicine homologous substances in traditional medicine and modern medical care. These findings lay the foundation for the development of new functional foods and drugs. This study aims to analyze the deficiencies of the current research, look forward to the future development direction, and provide research references for the fields of food and medicine. 2 Classification of Food and Medicine Homologous Substances 2.1Plants Plant-based food and medicinal substances are the category that has been studied most deeply due to their diverse components and rich activities. It mainly includes herbs, fruits, vegetables and grains, etc., which can be used as food ingredients and have medicinal value. A typical example is coix seed, which contains components such as polysaccharides and phenols and has the effects of anti-cancer and liver protection (Zeng et al., 2022). Luo Han Guo, as a natural sweetener, contains
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