Exploration strategies for food and medicine homologous resources: future direction in food development

Abstract The theory of food and medicine homology emphasizes the integration of food and medicine functions to achieve health interventions through daily diet, becoming a significant development direction for the health industry. With the rapid advancement of modern disciplines such as mass spectrometry, omics technologies, artificial intelligence (AI), and bioinformatics, the scientific underpinnings of food and medicine homology are gradually being revealed. The in-depth exploration and development of food and medicine homology resources and their products are increasingly shaping the future of food innovation. This paper summarizes the application of classical herbal texts, folk practices, and cutting-edge technologies like AI and multimodal omics technology in mining food and medicine homologous resources. It also highlights the bidirectional value exploration, uncovering medicinal properties in edible resources and the edible potential in medicinal resources, to foster innovative scientific paradigms in this field. This approach accelerates the development of food and medicine homologous resources and paves new pathways for future food innovation.