Research Progress on the Historical Evolution of Processing Technology and Quality Evaluation of Codonopsis Radix

Codonopsis Radix, derived from the Platycodonaceae family, is a Chinese herbalmedicine that is primarily found in Central and Southeast Asia. It is also widely utilized as a foodingredient throughout China. We have checked the Chinese Materia Medica, the successive editionsof the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, and various local processing specifications and combinedthem with modern literature and materials to organize the processing of Codonopsis Radix interms of its origin, processing technology, and the quality evaluation methods of its processedproducts. The main processing methods of Codonopsis Radix include plain stir-heating, rice stirheating,honey stir-heating, liquor stir-heating, earth stir-heating, bran stir-heating, ginger juicestir-heating, patchouli stir-heating, Halloysitum Rubrum stir-heating, and steaming. The qualityevaluation of processed products mainly includes appearance character, physicochemical identification,atomic absorption spectrometry, ultraviolet spectrophotometry, high-performance liquidchromatography fingerprinting technique, and metabolomics technique. By comparing the processingmethods of Codonopsis Radix in the processing specifications of different regions, we foundthat the processing methods and quality evaluation standards vary greatly from place to place andare poorly generalized, resulting in uneven quality of processed products and making it difficult toachieve the unified market management. In this paper, by reviewing the research progress on theprocessed products of Codonopsis Radix, we hope to provide a reference for the subsequent developmentof a unified scientific and reasonable concoction method and quality evaluation standard.