Remote Sensing Applications in Medicinal Plant Monitoring and Quality Assessment: A Review

Area of Science:

• Agricultural Science
• Environmental Science
• Traditional Chinese Medicine

Background:

• Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) relies heavily on medicinal plants, but conventional monitoring is costly and inefficient.
• Remote sensing technology presents a viable, efficient alternative for large-scale, dynamic assessment of these vital resources.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review and analyze the application of remote sensing in medicinal plant resource investigation, monitoring, and quality assessment.
• To summarize remote sensing platforms, sensors, and analytical methods used in this field.
• To identify current trends and future challenges in remote sensing for medicinal plants.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature review from 2005 to 2025.
• Analysis of remote sensing platforms (satellite, UAV, ground-based), sensors, and data analytical methods.
• Evaluation of applications in resource surveys, planting and stress monitoring, and TCM quality assessment.

Main Results:

• Remote sensing applications, particularly integrated space-air-ground approaches, achieve high accuracies (80-100%) for mapping, growth retrieval, stress monitoring, and non-destructive quality evaluation.
• Studies predominantly focus on resource surveys and quality analysis of root and rhizome herbs.
• Current trends include space-air-ground integration, data fusion, AI, and multi-omics integration.

Conclusions:

• Remote sensing offers significant advancements for medicinal plant resource management and TCM quality assessment.
• Challenges remain, including monitoring wild habitats, root herbs, spectral confusion, and model generalization.
• Future directions involve integrated networks, advanced quality inversion models, climate-adaptive systems, pest-disease warnings, and multi-omics integration for sustainable development.