Abstract

Degenerative diseases—including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, neurodegeneration, and osteoarthritis—are rising rapidly across Asia due to demographic ageing, urbanization, and lifestyle transitions. Medicinal plants are deeply embedded in Asian health systems and cultural practices, creating opportunities for biochemistry research to support prevention through mechanism‑aligned interventions (e.g., metabolic regulation, anti‑inflammatory pathways, endothelial protection, microbiome‑metabolite modulation). However, many plant-based studies remain stuck at early evidence stages (single antioxidant assays or crude extracts), with limited standardization, safety evaluation, and human evidence. This article provides a framework synthesis (≤2024) of medicinal plant biochemistry research for degenerative disease prevention in Asia. We integrate evidence on shared biochemical pathways of degenerative diseases (oxidative stress, chronic inflammation, metabolic dysregulation, proteostasis failure), metabolomics and natural products workflows (Fiehn, 2002; Sumner et al., 2007; Wolfender et al., 2019), natural products’ role in therapeutic discovery (Newman & Cragg, 2020; Atanasov et al., 2021), and governance under the Nagoya Protocol (CBD, 2011; Oberthür & Rosendal, 2014). Results are presented as two conceptual figures (a pathway map and an evidence‑translation ladder) and three implementation tables mapping (1) biochemical targets and assays, (2) evidence ladder and reporting criteria, and (3) challenges with mitigation strategies for higher education institutions. We argue that high-impact prevention research requires moving beyond antioxidant-only screening to multi-target mechanism panels, rigorous metabolite identification, dose–response and bioavailability considerations, contamination control, and staged human biomarker studies. We conclude with an institutional roadmap emphasizing shared analytical cores, reproducible workflows, ethical access and benefit-sharing, and clinical/public health partnerships to generate credible evidence and scalable interventions.