Yudie Wang¹ , Haomin Chen²

1 Traditional Chinese Medicine Research Center, Cuixi Academy of Biotechnology, Zhuji, 311800, Zhejiang, China
2 Tropical Medicinal Plant Research Center, Hainan Institute of Tropical Agricultural Resources, Sanya, 572025, Hainan, China
Author    Correspondence author
Medicinal Plant Research, 2025, Vol. 15, No. 6   doi: 10.5376/mpr.2025.15.0028
Received: 15 Sep., 2025    Accepted: 20 Oct., 2025    Published: 30 Nov., 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.

Wang Y.D., and Chen H.M., 2025, Advances in biosynthetic pathways of phenylpropanoids in Angelica sinensis, Medicinal Plant Research, 15(6): 264-273 (doi: 10.5376/mpr.2025.15.0028)

As one of the most representative medicinal plants of traditional Chinese medicine, Angelica sinensis contains a variety of bioactive constituents, in which phenylpropanoids serve as major functional compounds and are reported to possess significant pharmacological activities, involving antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, circulatory-enhancing, and neuroprotective effects. In the context of advances in molecular biology, metabolomics, and synthetic biology, great progress has been made in recent years regarding the investigation into the biosynthetic pathways of phenylpropanoids in A. sinensis. This study firstly describes the structural characteristics and classification of phenylpropanoids, outlines their distribution pattern and functional relevance in A. sinensis, and highlights recent progress regarding the identification of key biosynthetic enzymes, including PAL, C4H, 4CL, COMT, and CCoAOMT, regulatory factors (including transcription factors such as MYB, bHLH, and WRKY), and associated signaling mechanisms. Furthermore, it summarizes the application of multi-omics integration, gene editing, metabolic engineering, and synthetic biology platforms in unlocking biosynthetic mechanisms and enhancing the production of target compounds. In addition, this review considers the influence of environmental conditions, developmental stages, and hormonal signaling on phenylpropanoid biosynthesis. This study provides fundamental theoretical insights into the comprehensive biosynthetic network of phenylpropanoids in A. sinensis and lays a foundation for their innovative development.

Angelica sinensis; Phenylpropanoids; Biosynthetic pathways; Key enzymes and regulatory mechanisms; Synthetic biology