Insights into the Health-Promoting Properties and Nutraceutical and Food Applications of Lonicera japonica Thunb.

Summary

This narrative review synthesises evidence on Lonicera japonica, an edible medicinal plant with centuries of traditional use across East Asia, cataloguing its bioactive constituents and demonstrated health-promoting properties including antioxidant, antibacterial, antiviral, and immunomodulatory activity. The authors examine cultivation, quality evaluation, and cultivar identification practices, whilst comprehensively discussing the molecular mechanisms underpinning its major pharmacological effects, particularly anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory pathways. The review provides a scientific foundation for continued development of L. japonica in pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, and functional food sectors.

Regional applicability

This review focuses on an East Asian medicinal plant with established traditional and commercial use in China, Japan, and Korea. Applicability to United Kingdom practice would depend on regulatory status (novel food authorisation, herbal registration) and consumer interest in ethnobotanical products; the scientific mechanisms identified may inform functional food development globally, but direct agricultural or dietary policy application to UK conditions is limited.

Key measures

Bioactive constituent profiles; antioxidant, antibacterial, antiviral, immunomodulatory, and anti-endotoxin activities; molecular mechanisms of anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects

Outcomes reported

Comprehensive review of bioactive constituents, health-promoting properties (antioxidant, antibacterial, antiviral, immunomodulatory, metabolic regulatory), molecular mechanisms, and nutraceutical/functional food applications of Lonicera japonica.

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