Traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) resources refer to the total reserves of plants, animals, and minerals that can be used as raw materials of TCM(including Chinese medicial materials, TCM decoction pieces, TCM dispensing granules, traditional Chinese patent medicine, and TCM hospital preparation) and folk herbal medicine, which served as the material basis of inheritance, innovation, and development of TCM. In recent years, the sustainable utilization of TCM resources has received high attention and acquired a series of significant achievements in resource survey, quality evaluation, resource protection, innovative technology, and development and utilization, which effectively promoted the sustainable utilization of TCM resources and high-quality development of the TCM industry. The most urgent issue currently is to shift the focus of the research on the sustainable utilization of TCM resources from a sustainable utilization technology system to a sustainable utilization evaluation indicator system. Therefore, in order to objectively evaluate the ability, level, and trend of the sustainable utilization of TCM resources, an evaluation indicator system for sustainable utilization of TCM resources(EIS-TCMRSU) and methods for measuring and determining various standards and indicators were innovatively constructed. With the support of economic policies and scientific regulation of TCM policies, emerging technologies and new tools and methods could be applied to achieve the strategic goals of sustainable utilization and sustainable development of TCM resources. Based on the driving force-pressure-state-impact-response(DPSIR) model, key indicators including resource driving force, environmental pressure, resource state, socio-economic impact, and management response were determined by analyzing the industry chain bottleneck problems and development factors related to the sustainable utilization of TCM resources. According to the scientific, systematic, comparable, dynamic, and operable principles, the EIS-TCMRSU theoretical system was constructed to accurately reflect the ability and development trend of the sustainable utilization of TCM resources and promote the EIS-TCMRSU research from theoretical exploration to practical application. It ensured objective evaluation of the level and ability of sustainable utilization of TCM resources and provided a theoretical basis and practical guidance for the sustainable utilization and sustainable development of TCM resources. In addition, it is of great significance for promoting high-level safety supervision of TCM and high-quality development of the TCM industry.
Keywords: DPSIR model; evaluation indicator system; high-quality development of traditional Chinese medicine industry; sustainable utilization; the fourth national survey of Chinese materia medica resources; traditional Chinese medicine regulatory science; traditional Chinese medicine resources.