Recycling traditional Chinese medicine residues: a review

Xiaowei Wu; Dai Dai; Na Li; Haixin Zheng; Cuixia Wang; Weixiong Lin; Liaoyuan Liu; Zheng Zhang; Jörg Rinklebe; Carol Sze Ki Lin; Wen Rui; Chong Li

doi:10.1007/s10311-025-01837-4

Recycling traditional Chinese medicine residues: a review

Xiaowei Wu (Co-first Author)
, Dai Dai (Co-first Author)
, Na Li (Co-first Author)
, Haixin Zheng
, Cuixia Wang
, Weixiong Lin
, Liaoyuan Liu
, Zheng Zhang
, Jörg Rinklebe
, Carol Sze Ki Lin^*
, Wen Rui^*
, Chong Li^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Energy and Environment

Research output: Journal Publications and Reviews › RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal › peer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

2 Downloads (CityUHK Scholars)

Abstract

Traditional Chinese medicine has a rich history in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, yet the disposal of medicine residues by incineration and landfilling is challenging. Here we review methods to recycle Chinese medicine residues with focus on challenges, recycling solutions, and case studies. Cases studies include extraction of bioactive compounds, use as feed additives, and biochar-based materials. We observed that residues from single-compound medicines are easier to extract and recycle into animal feed additives or adsorbents. Technical and economic analysis show that the valorisation of single-compound medicine residues is profitable. For instance, the re-extraction cost of flavonoids is 25.8–36.6% lower than the market price, and the cost as feed additives represents 14.7% of the market prices. © The Author(s) 2025.

Original language	English
Article number	115765
Pages (from-to)	977-997
Journal	Environmental Chemistry Letters
Volume	23
Issue number	4
Online published	28 Mar 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10311-025-01837-4
Publication status	Published - Aug 2025

Funding

Open access publishing enabled by City University of Hong Kong Library's agreement with Springer Nature. The authors acknowledge funds from the General Program of Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China (2025A1515010785), Science and Technology Innovation Project of Foshan (2320001006040) and Scientific Research Foundation for Principal Investigator (KIMA-QD2022005) of Kunpeng Institute of Modern Agriculture at Foshan, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Research Keywords

Economic feasibility
Environmental risk
Explicit composition
Formula granule
Potential toxicity
Support policy

Publisher's Copyright Statement

This full text is made available under CC-BY 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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title = "Recycling traditional Chinese medicine residues: a review",

abstract = "Traditional Chinese medicine has a rich history in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, yet the disposal of medicine residues by incineration and landfilling is challenging. Here we review methods to recycle Chinese medicine residues with focus on challenges, recycling solutions, and case studies. Cases studies include extraction of bioactive compounds, use as feed additives, and biochar-based materials. We observed that residues from single-compound medicines are easier to extract and recycle into animal feed additives or adsorbents. Technical and economic analysis show that the valorisation of single-compound medicine residues is profitable. For instance, the re-extraction cost of flavonoids is 25.8–36.6\% lower than the market price, and the cost as feed additives represents 14.7\% of the market prices. {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2025.",

keywords = "Economic feasibility, Environmental risk, Explicit composition, Formula granule, Potential toxicity, Support policy",

author = "Xiaowei Wu and Dai Dai and Na Li and Haixin Zheng and Cuixia Wang and Weixiong Lin and Liaoyuan Liu and Zheng Zhang and J{\"o}rg Rinklebe and Lin, \{Carol Sze Ki\} and Wen Rui and Chong Li",

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doi = "10.1007/s10311-025-01837-4",

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T1 - Recycling traditional Chinese medicine residues

T2 - a review

AU - Wu, Xiaowei

AU - Dai, Dai

AU - Li, Na

AU - Zheng, Haixin

AU - Wang, Cuixia

AU - Lin, Weixiong

AU - Liu, Liaoyuan

AU - Zhang, Zheng

AU - Rinklebe, Jörg

AU - Lin, Carol Sze Ki

AU - Rui, Wen

AU - Li, Chong

PY - 2025/8

Y1 - 2025/8

N2 - Traditional Chinese medicine has a rich history in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, yet the disposal of medicine residues by incineration and landfilling is challenging. Here we review methods to recycle Chinese medicine residues with focus on challenges, recycling solutions, and case studies. Cases studies include extraction of bioactive compounds, use as feed additives, and biochar-based materials. We observed that residues from single-compound medicines are easier to extract and recycle into animal feed additives or adsorbents. Technical and economic analysis show that the valorisation of single-compound medicine residues is profitable. For instance, the re-extraction cost of flavonoids is 25.8–36.6% lower than the market price, and the cost as feed additives represents 14.7% of the market prices. © The Author(s) 2025.

AB - Traditional Chinese medicine has a rich history in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, yet the disposal of medicine residues by incineration and landfilling is challenging. Here we review methods to recycle Chinese medicine residues with focus on challenges, recycling solutions, and case studies. Cases studies include extraction of bioactive compounds, use as feed additives, and biochar-based materials. We observed that residues from single-compound medicines are easier to extract and recycle into animal feed additives or adsorbents. Technical and economic analysis show that the valorisation of single-compound medicine residues is profitable. For instance, the re-extraction cost of flavonoids is 25.8–36.6% lower than the market price, and the cost as feed additives represents 14.7% of the market prices. © The Author(s) 2025.

KW - Economic feasibility

KW - Environmental risk

KW - Explicit composition

KW - Formula granule

KW - Potential toxicity

KW - Support policy

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105001493228

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U2 - 10.1007/s10311-025-01837-4

DO - 10.1007/s10311-025-01837-4

M3 - RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal

SN - 1610-3653

VL - 23

SP - 977

EP - 997

JO - Environmental Chemistry Letters

JF - Environmental Chemistry Letters

IS - 4

M1 - 115765

ER -

Recycling traditional Chinese medicine residues: a review

Abstract

Funding

Research Keywords

Publisher's Copyright Statement

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