Functional food potential of Cornus officinalis for liver health: mechanistic evidence and perspectives

Liver diseases remain a global health crisis, with limited safe therapeutic options. Cornus officinalis, a traditional medicinal-edible plant, has demonstrated significant hepatoprotective potential. This review systematically summarizes its liver-protective mechanisms and explores its potential as a functional food. Data were collected from scientific databases such as PubMed, ScienceDirect, Elsevier, Google Scholar, and relevant literature. Key bioactive compounds—including iridoids, polyphenols, and polysaccharides—contribute to hepatoprotection by mitigating oxidative stress, inflammation, steatosis, apoptosis, and by regulating gut microbiota. As critical quality markers, iridoids exhibit suboptimal bioavailability, necessitating targeted technological interventions—nanoencapsulation for liver-specific delivery and microbial fermentation for controlled aglycone conversion are proposed to enhance their pharmacokinetic properties and bioactivity. Future research could adopt encapsulation and fermentation technologies for C. officinalis processing, aiming to develop targeted functional food products with enhanced bioactivity of its active components. This review, for the first time, establishes a “component-pathway-integration” model, providing a theoretical framework for evidence-based CO-derived functional food development and highlighting the need for further research on iridoid metabolic transformation to advance liver health management.