Review of recent advances on health benefits, microbial transformations, and authenticity identification of Citri reticulatae Pericarpium bioactive compounds

The extensive health-promoting effects of Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium (CRP) have attracted researchers’ interest. The difference in storage time, varieties and origin of CRP are closely related to the content of bioactive compounds they contain. The consitituent transformation mediated by environmental microorganisms (bacteria and fungi) and the production of new bioactive components during the storage process may be the main reason for ‘the older, the better’ of CRP. In addition, the gap in price between different varieties can be as large as 8 times, while the difference due to age can even reach 20 times, making the ‘marketing young-CRP as old-CRP and counterfeiting origin’ flood the entire market, seriously harming consumers’ interests. However, so far, the research on CRP is relatively decentralized. In particular, a summary of the microbial transformation and authenticity identification of CRP has not been reported. Therefore, this review systematically summarized the recent advances on the main bioactive compounds, the major biological activities, the microbial transformation process, the structure, and content changes of the active substances during the transformation process, and authenticity identification of CRP. Furthermore, challenges and perspectives concerning the future research on CRP were proposed.