摘要Medicinal plants are a valuable source of essential medicines and herbal products for healthcare and dis-ease therapy.Compared with chemical synthesis and extraction,the biosynthesis of natural products is a very promising alternative for the successful conservation of medicinal plants,and its rapid development will greatly facilitate the conservation and sustainable utilization of medicinal plants.Here,we summa-rize the advances in strategies and methods concerning the biosynthesis and production of natural prod-ucts of medicinal plants.The strategies and methods mainly include genetic engineering,plant cell culture engineering,metabolic engineering,and synthetic biology based on multiple"OMICS"technolo-gies,with paradigms for the biosynthesis of terpenoids and alkaloids.We also highlight the biosynthetic approaches and discuss progress in the production of some valuable natural products,exemplifying com-pounds such as vindoline(alkaloid),artemisinin and paclitaxel(terpenoids),to illustrate the power of biotechnology in medicinal plants.