How to parse a small subset of Markdown into React components?

I have a very small subset of Markdown along with some custom html that I would like to parse into React components. For example, I would like to turn this following string:

hello *asdf* *how* _are_ you !doing! today

Into the following array:

[ "hello ", <strong>asdf</strong>, " ", <strong>how</strong>, " ", <em>are</em>, " you ", <MyComponent onClick={this.action}>doing</MyComponent>, " today" ]

and then return it from a React render function (React will render the array properly as formatted HTML)

Basically, I want to give users the option to use a very limited set of Markdown to turn their text into styled components (and in some cases my own components!)

It is unwise to dangerouslySetInnerHTML, and I do not want to bring in an external dependency, because they are all very heavy, and I only need very basic functionality.

I'm currently doing something like this, but it is very brittle, and doesn't work for all cases. I was wondering if there were a better way:

function matchStrong(result, i) {
  let match = result[i].match(/(^|[^\\])\*(.*)\*/);
  if (match) { result[i] = <strong key={"ms" + i}>{match[2]}</strong>; }
  return match;
}

function matchItalics(result, i) {
  let match = result[i].match(/(^|[^\\])_(.*)_/); // Ignores \_asdf_ but not _asdf_
  if (match) { result[i] = <em key={"mi" + i}>{match[2]}</em>; }
  return match;
}

function matchCode(result, i) {
  let match = result[i].match(/(^|[^\\])```\n?([\s\S]+)\n?```/);
  if (match) { result[i] = <code key={"mc" + i}>{match[2]}</code>; }
  return match;
}

// Very brittle and inefficient
export function convertMarkdownToComponents(message) {
  let result = message.match(/(\\?([!*_`+-]{1,3})([\s\S]+?)\2)|\s|([^\\!*_`+-]+)/g);

  if (result == null) { return message; }

  for (let i = 0; i < result.length; i++) {
    if (matchCode(result, i)) { continue; }
    if (matchStrong(result, i)) { continue; }
    if (matchItalics(result, i)) { continue; }
  }

  return result;
}

Here is my previous question which led to this one.

from How to parse a small subset of Markdown into React components?