Jianhui Li

Jiande Shouchang Forest Farm of Zhejiang, Jiande, 311600, Zhejiang, China
Author    Correspondence author
Medicinal Plant Research, 2026, Vol. 16, No. 2   
Received: 20 Feb., 2026    Accepted: 24 Mar., 2026    Published: 05 Apr., 2026

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.

This study explores the mechanisms by which shading environments affect the growth and medicinal quality formation of Tetrastigma hemsleyanum. T. hemsleyanum is an important medicinal vine in China, and its tuberous roots and aerial parts are rich in bioactive compounds, including flavonoids, polysaccharides, and phenolic acids, which have medicinal development value due to their anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, immunomodulatory, and antitumor activities. With the decline of wild resources and the increasing demand for artificial cultivation, achieving high-yield and high-quality production of T. hemsleyanum through light environment regulation has become a key issue in its standardized cultivation and industrial development. This study analyzes the ecological habits and low-light adaptation basis of T. hemsleyanum, elucidates the effects of shading on morphogenesis, biomass accumulation, photosynthetic pigments, photosynthetic efficiency, antioxidant systems, carbon-nitrogen metabolic balance, and the accumulation of flavonoids, polysaccharides, and phenolic compounds, and further discusses the roles of light signal perception, signal transduction pathways such as COP1-HY5, key enzyme genes, and transcription factor regulation in medicinal quality formation. Existing studies indicate that T. hemsleyanum exhibits obvious shade-adaptive characteristics, and approximately 67%~70% shading is generally beneficial for maintaining relatively high net photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, and leaf function, while also promoting vine growth, leaf expansion, and tuberous root development. In contrast, strong light or excessive shading may inhibit photosynthetic efficiency and disrupt carbon assimilation and biomass allocation. In the future, shading intensity, light quality regulation, cultivation model optimization, and multi-index quality evaluation systems should be integrated to establish standardized shading cultivation techniques suitable for different ecological regions and growth stages of T. hemsleyanum, thereby providing a theoretical basis for resource conservation, high-quality medicinal material production, and industrial utilization.

Tetrastigma hemsleyanum; shading environment; photosynthetic physiology; secondary metabolism; medicinal quality