The central science on your plate: how chemistry unlocks the power of food and medicine

Food‑medicine homology (FMH), a long‑standing concept rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine, holds that many foods can exert therapeutic health effects. Despite millennia of empirical application, critical molecular questions remain unanswered: which bioactive molecules drive health benefits, how these compounds interact, what effective dosage ranges are needed, and where they act inside the human body. Without this molecular knowledge, FMH cannot become a reliable, actionable modern health intervention.

A multi‑institutional research team proposes that chemistry, known as the central science, can close this long‑existing knowledge gap by translating ancient FMH wisdom into quantifiable and testable molecular parameters. The team published their Opinion article in Food & Medicine Homology on August 19, 2026.

“Traditional food‑medicine homology largely relies on accumulated empirical experience. To turn it into a precise modern health strategy, we need clear molecular‑oriented guidelines. We therefore put forward the unified ‘5R Principle’: the Right Molecule, in the Right Combination, at the Right Time, in the Right Site, and at the Right Concentration,” explained Xu Zhou, Principal Investigator at College of Chemistry, Nanjing University. This framework converts vague empirical knowledge into concrete research questions covering active compound identification, component ratio optimization, and safe‑effective exposure boundaries.

Different evaluation metrics apply to different types of bioactive substances. For small bioactive molecules, pharmacokinetic indicators such as plasma concentration and half‑life serve as key measurement benchmarks. For macromolecules like polysaccharides, researchers focus more on intestinal exposure, gut microbial transformation and fermentation‑derived products.

The authors further map five core chemistry branches to build a full‑stack research and development pipeline for implementing the 5R Principle.

Physical chemistry combined with artificial intelligence provides powerful tools to decode molecular behaviours, ranging from molecular dynamics simulation to deep‑learning prediction of compound‑target interactions. Synthetic chemistry and biomanufacturing support large‑scale production of target functional molecules; representative cases include engineered yeast that produces puerarin from glucose and semi‑synthetic preparation of artemisinin. Polymer chemistry delivers advanced macromolecular structures and drug delivery systems, exemplified by whole‑bean tofu and potato‑rice processing technology, as well as polysaccharide‑based colon‑targeted hydrogels. Analytical chemistry validates every dimension of the 5R criteria, using techniques such as UHPLC‑HRMS for component identification and mass spectrometry imaging to trace compound absorption and distribution inside organisms. Chemical engineering finally enables laboratory discoveries to transition to industrial manufacturing, with cell‑free chemoenzymatic synthesis of starch from carbon dioxide as a landmark demonstration.

 

Nevertheless, multiple bottlenecks still block practical advancement across these chemistry sub‑fields. “AI prediction faces limited training datasets and poor model interpretability. Many natural‑product cell factories suffer from low yields. Batch‑to‑batch variation of natural polymers complicates quality control. Complex biological matrices create severe interference for analytical detection, and production scale‑up frequently causes unexpected yield loss,” said Jiangwei Tian, Professor at the School of Traditional Chinese Pharmacy, China Pharmaceutical University. These unsolved challenges mark key frontiers for follow‑up investigations.

 

The research team hopes this Opinion will inspire cross‑disciplinary collaboration among food scientists, pharmacologists, chemists and artificial‑intelligence researchers. “By applying chemical thinking, we can quantitatively connect food quantity with medicine quality, and realise targeted molecular regulation for maintaining human life homeostasis,” Xin Han, Professor at Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, commented. Looking ahead, the ultimate goal is to modernise food‑medicine homology and deliver safer, personalised nutritional and therapeutic solutions for public health.

Other contributors include researchers from Nanjing Normal University and Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine.

This work received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not‑for‑profit sectors.

 

DOI Link:

https://doi.org/10.26599/FMH.2026.9420130

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