Biophoton emission promotes the modern scientific utilization of medicinal plants: from theoretical integration to research applications

Medicinal plants constitute the primary pharmacological source of Chinese medicine and their scientific interpretation is crucial for quality standardization and clinical guidance. Paradoxically, the contemporary evaluation model primarily adopts reductionism, inconsistent with the system-oriented holistic view of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). In this review, the commonality between the organismic electromagnetic radiation field and the "qi" of TCM was deeply dissected from five levels. This reveals the fundamental consistency between the biophoton coherence and the holism of TCM. The scientific connotation of Chinese medicinal properties may be the ability and metric to regulate quantum superposition states of biological electromagnetic fields. Therefore, employing biophoton emission (BE)-based methods to investigate the medicinal properties of medicinal plants may provide scientific support that aligns more closely with holism. BE technology has shown great potential in quantifying medicinal characteristic parameters, including the quantization of Chinese medicinal properties, the identification of various processed products, and quality control. Especially in the real-time quality monitoring during the cultivation process of medicinal plants, BE characteristics can comprehensively reflect the natural and efficacious properties. This interdisciplinary thinking will help to establish a novel theoretical framework and methodological system to advance the modernization and development of medicinal plants.