Food and medicine homology (FMH) substances possess the dual capability of being used as both food and medicine. In recent years, the concept of FMH has been emphasized and developed in unprecedented ways. Triterpenoids, as key bioactive constituents within FMH substances, exhibit remarkable structural diversity and multi-target pharmacological activities, including anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, hypoglycemic, and immunomodulatory effects. This review systematically summarizes the structural classification, spatiotemporal distribution patterns, and pharmacological mechanisms of FMH triterpenoids, with a particular focus on their dual role in disease prevention and functional foods. Addressing the challenge of low extraction efficiency from plants, synthetic biology approaches have elucidated the biosynthetic pathways regulated by rate-limiting enzymes, including oxidosqualene cyclases, cytochrome P450 monooxygenases, and UDP-glycosyltransferases. Synthetic biology strategies for the heterologous production of these triterpenoids in plant and microbial cell factories are critically evaluated. Despite advances in pathway reconstruction and enzyme engineering, challenges such as low yield, poor catalytic specificity, and scalability for industrial production persist. Emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence-driven protein design and biosensor-based high-throughput screening, offer transformative solutions for optimizing triterpenoid biosynthesis. This work lays the groundwork for harnessing FMH triterpenoids as sustainable resources for pharmaceuticals and functional foods.

A new polysaccharide fragment HTP-60a was isolated from Hawk tea and protected against colitis in mice. Its molecular weight is 24.1KDa, and its basic skeleton is →4)-β-D-Manp-1→3-β-D-Glcp-1→6-β-Galp-1→4-β-D-Xylp-1→4-β-D-Xylp-(1→. The biological activities of HTP-60a were separately explored through in vivo experiments. In vitro experiments show that HTP-60 can alleviate LPS-induced cellular inflammation by reducing the levels of intracellular inflammatory factors. In vivo experiments confirmed that HTP-60a can reduce the level of cellular inflammation, increase the content of short-chain fatty acids, and regulate the intestinal microbiota in mice with colitis to alleviate the development of colitis. HTP-60a improves colitis in mice by inhibiting the activation of key signaling pathways such as PI3K-Akt、NF-κB, HIF-1 etc. and restoring the expression of connexins (Tjp1, Tjp3, Nectin1, Nectin2, Nectin3, Nectin4, Cldn1, Cldn7, Cldn15, Cx43). These results suggest that HTP-60a exhibits promising attributes as a natural compound, characterized by its interactions with various targets and pathways, as well as its lack of toxicity laying a theoretical foundation for it to become a functional food that can improve colitis symptoms for further research and development.