RESUMEN
Chinese materia medica (CMM) plays an important role both in the disease prevention and therapy system and also in natural drug screening. Biotechnology exhibits applicable prospects in modern research of CMM with progress of natural science and technologies. Amplification fragment length polymorphism (AFLP), restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), random amplification polymorphism of DNA (RAPD), and microsatellite DNA have been used to discriminate and breed herbal varieties. Genetic transformation and techniques of tissue and cell culture are explored to protect herbal resouces and to produce active components or parts on a commercial scale. High throughput technologies of proteome and biochip are expected to probe molecular targets and routes of CMM with the changes of proteome and gene expression. The results can be helpful to novel drug development and secondary exploitation, so as to promote the modernization process of CMM.