The evolution and significance of medicine and food homology

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funding

This work was supported, in part, by Natural Science Foundation of China (82274403, T2341004, 82321004, 82174054), Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2023B1515020020, 2023B1515040016, 2021B1515120023), Guangzhou Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2024A04J6406), China Association of Chinese Medicine (CACM-2022-QNRC2-B08), K. C. Wong Education Foundation, the Local Innovative and Research Teams Project of Guangdong Pearl River Talents Program (2017BT01Y036) and GDUPS (2019), Innovation Team Project of Guangdong Provincial Department of Education (2020KCXTD003), Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine & Disease Susceptibility (2024A03J090), Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Universities Joint Laboratory for the Internationalization of Traditional Chinese Medicine (2023LSYS002). Mei Wang's research is partially support by Dutch subsidy entitled: “Programma EFRO West-Nederland 2021-2027.”

Author contributions

Huan Zhong and Zhi-Qing Tang drafted the manuscript. Yi-Fang Li and Mei Wang revised the manuscript. Wan-Yang Sun and Rong-Rong He proposed revisions to the important intellectual content of the manuscript. All authors reviewed and approved the manuscript.

Ethical approval of studies and informed consent

Not applicable.

Acknowledgments

None.

Data availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

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Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine