Different kinds of functional components with multiple biological activities in Cornus officinalis as food and medicinal resource: a review

Cornus officinalis Sieb. et Zucc., a valuable Chinese medicine resource, has a long clinic utilization history. In recent years, more research focus on the chemical composition and pharmacological activity of C. officinalis which was used as health foods and drugs. This paper summarized the active ingredients, pharmacological activities and molecular mechanisms of C. officinalis in recent 5 years to provide reference for the development and utilization of C. officinalis. A total of 149 active constituents of C. officinalis were summarized, including iridoids (64), flavonoids (18), lignin (17), tannins (16), organic acids and phenolic acids (14), triterpenes (11) and others (9), which were further subdivided according to their pharmacological effects. It was found that the pharmacological effects of C. officinalis were very extensive, mainly including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, neuroprotective and other biological activities. Among these activities, the anti-inflammatory and hypoglycemic mechanisms showed multi-pathway and multi-target characteristics, which were elaborated systematically. However, there are still many compounds in C. officinalis that have not been studied for biological activity, which means that it still has potential pharmacological activity to be further studied. C. officinalis not only has high medicinal value, but also has a potential edible resource. However, limited by people’s understanding of the nutritional value of C. officinalis, few product types and incomplete processing technology, people’s acceptance of the edible value of C. officinalis is not high, and it needs to be further developed and utilized.