Natural products (NPs) and their structural analogs represent a major source of novel drug development for disease prevention and treatment. The development of new drugs from NPs includes two crucial aspects. One is the discovery of NPs from medicinal plants/microorganisms, and the other is the evaluation of the NPs in vivo at various physiological and pathological states. The heterogeneous spatial distribution of NPs in medicinal plants/microorganisms or in vivo can provide valuable information for drug development. However, few molecular imaging technologies can detect thousands of compounds simultaneously on a label-free basis. Over the last two decades, mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) methods have progressively improved and diversified, thereby allowing for the development of various applications of NPs in plants/microorganisms and in vivo NP research. Because MSI allows for the spatial mapping of the production and distribution of numerous molecules in situ without labeling, it provides a visualization tool for NP research. Therefore, we have focused this mini-review on summarizing the applications of MSI technology in discovering NPs from medicinal plants and evaluating NPs in preclinical studies from the perspective of new drug research and development (R&D). Additionally, we briefly reviewed the factors that should be carefully considered to obtain the desired MSI results. Finally, the future development of MSI in new drug R&D is proposed.

天然产物（NP）及其结构类似物是疾病预防和治疗新药开发的主要来源。纳米颗粒新药的开发包括两个关键方面。一是从药用植物/微生物中发现纳米颗粒，二是对纳米颗粒在体内各种生理和病理状态下的评价。纳米粒子在药用植物/微生物或体内的异质空间分布可以为药物开发提供有价值的信息。然而，很少有分子成像技术能够在无标记的基础上同时检测数千种化合物。在过去的二十年中，质谱成像（MSI）方法逐渐改进和多样化，从而允许纳米颗粒在植物/微生物和体内纳米颗粒研究中的各种应用的发展。由于 MSI 允许在不进行标记的情况下原位绘制大量分子的产生和分布的空间图，因此它为 NP 研究提供了可视化工具。因此，我们从新药研发（R&D）的角度，总结了MSI技术在从药用植物中发现纳米粒子以及在临床前研究中评估纳米粒子的应用。此外，我们还简要回顾了为获得所需 MSI 结果应仔细考虑的因素。最后对MSI在新药研发中的未来发展提出了建议。