[Biorefinery engineering for Chinese herbal medicines: a review]

The resource limitation, ineffective utilization and severe waste generated during processing restrict the sustainable development of the Chinese herbal medicine industry. The main reasons lie in insufficient utilization of medicinal components as well as few and outdated technologies. Integration and optimization of serial technologies including pretreatment, extraction, conversion and waste treatment are the keys to solve these issues. In this article, the updated research progress and technology development of biorefinery engineering for herbal medicines are reviewed. Guided by multi-products oriental fractionation refining, Chinese herbal medicine refinery technical system is constructed relied on advanced refinery technology platforms.