| "Dao-di Herbs" is an original comprehensive indicator to evaluate the quality of traditional Chinese medicine.It is a conception of superior morphological character,quality,and clinical efficacy.In the past 30 years,several documents and data have been produced in the modern research of Dao-di Herbs,including text and images.It has the characteristics of large amounts,different types,scattered content,and different structures,and is less isolated or relative to each other.The formation of Dao-di Herbs is affected by various comprehensive factors such as germplasm,ecology,processing methods,and humanities.Therefore,the collection,sorting,storage,management,mining,and use of various types of characteristic data of Dao-di Herbs to standardize and digitize them will help promote the modern research and application of Dao-di Herbs.This study took advantage of knowledge-based construction technology,which is capable of extracting,cleaning,fusing,classifying,expressing,and inferring knowledge from big data.We combined this technology with the characteristics of Dao-di Herbs from literature published in the CNKI database since 1999.Based on the collection,screening,and sorting of literature with the characteristics of Dao-di Herbs,the knowledge base integrates the information of Dao-di Herbal morphological,microscopic,ecological,and genetic characteristics in the literature,and standardizes the Dao-di Herbal data.It integrates traditional experience and literature data as "feature-micro-ecology-genetics",which is a feature knowledge base of medicinal materials covering multiple types of data and was constructed to execute the integration,display,storage,delete,upload,and download functions of feature knowledge,pictures etc.The knowledge base shares and distributes information about Dao-di Herbs to Chinese medicine researchers,medicinal material planting,processing and distribution companies,quality supervision agencies of medicinal materials,and clinicians.Based on the knowledge base and the integration of Dao-di Herbal characteristic data,a demonstration study of knowledge discovery was conducted on the theme of "assessing the quality by distinguishing color of traditional Chinese medicinal materials(CMM)" "assessing the quality by distinguishing features of CMMs".The study consisted of five parts:1.Entry data items and data element designFirst,according to the production area of CMM,the characteristic data of CMMs in the literature of CNKI database were sorted out.The characteristics of the Dao-di Herbal data items were designed via combining the fourth national survey of Chinese medicine resources census planning with relevant information from the"Chinese Medicine Resources Spatial Information Grid Database Enter" for cleaning data from different sources and integrating knowledge.The input data items included format types such as text,numbers,and letters and were divided into general data items and characteristic data items as follows:(1)39 were general data items,such as ID of medicinal materials,modern breed name and number,sample name and number,sampling time,collector,place name and number,GPS information,purchase/providing time,medicinal materials market/provided by,medicinal material batch,reference types,reference titles in Chinese and English,and information of journal source.(2)113 were morphologic data items,such as the shape,size,texture,color,odor,surface characteristics,section characteristics,and other characteristics of the original medicinal materials and the different medicinal parts(roots and rhizomes,flowers,stems,barks,leaves,fruits,and seeds),descriptions of the main points for distinguishing Dao-di Herbs and herbs from other places by pictures,names,units,titles,and working years of experienced medicinal workers.(3)69 items belonged to microscopic characteristics data,including three types of microscopic characteristics of the medicinal materials(cross-section longitudinal microscopic characteristics,surface microscopic characteristics,powder microscopic characteristics),descriptions of the main points for distinguishing Dao-di Herbs and herbs from other places;micrographs(medicinal materials,surface microscopy,cross-section microscopy,powder microscopy,identification point comparison),and related information(number and shooting angle).(4)118 ecological characteristics data items,including the type of ecosystem,vegetation types,population area,cultivated area,soil characteristics(capacity,pH,heavy metal elements,macroelements,and content of trace elements),climate characteristics(temperature,precipitation),rhizosphere microecology(rhizosphere bacterial dominant species,total fungal,rhizosphere fungal dominant species),and other data on medical material production.(5)25 items of genetic characteristic data,including types of molecular markers used in medicinal materials(RAPD,SSR,ISSR,SNP,AFLP,and DNA characteristic fragments),number of molecular markers,primer names and sequence information,PCR reaction system and procedures,PCR results description,and pictures.On this basis,the input feature processing manual and the input feature processing table were compiled according to the data items,thereby providing a basis for data entry.2.Construction of the knowledge baseBased on the analysis of functional requirements and data requirements,the design of the knowledge base system architecture was constructed,which included conceptual design and logical design.The conceptual design abstracted the entities and relationships between entities such as Dao-di Herbs,medicine application sites,and characteristic data into E-R(Entity Relationship)models.The logical design transformed the E-R model into a two-dimensional data table for expression,knowledge storage,and management.On this basis,system development was carried out to form a platform for the integration,sharing,and distribution of knowledge regarding Dao-di Herbs.3.Data element entry and analysisData on the characteristics,micro-features,ecological characteristics,and genetic characteristics of 34 Dao-di Herbs published in the public literature since 1999 were collected,screened,and organized.The characteristic data were entered into the corresponding input characteristic processing,according to the requirements of the input feature processing manual.The entered data were divided into root and rhizome,fruit,stem,flower,and bark medicinal materials.A total of 55 species from 30 genera were involved.There were 7495 data elements,900 studies,and 917 places of origin were recorded,involving 333 journals and 834 first-author research units.The literature and entered data elements were analyzed according to their variety,microscopy,ecology,and genetic characteristics.The traditional Dao-di Herbs and literature appeared in high-frequency production areas.The research status of Dao-di Herbs and the changes in modern production areas were sorted out.The results were as follows:(1)Analysis of the published time of the input literature showed that,from 1999 to 2019,the average number of studies on the trait characteristics was 13.76,but very few of them were published after 2015.The average number of studies on the microscopic characteristics was 19.14,of which the number of literatures published between 2010 and 2015 was higher;the average annual number of studies on ecological characteristics was 7.0,which was higher from 2014 to 2016 compared to that from 1999 to 2019;the studies about the genetic characteristics started late,with an average number of 4.86,showing a year-by-year growth trend.(2)Roots and rhizomes,fruits,stems,bark,flowers,seeds,leaves,and characteristics of medicinal materials including the shape,size,color,surface/section of the medicinal materials and traditional medicinal materials were analyzed.The shape,color,quality,temperament,and taste of the medicinal materials were consistent upon quality evaluation.Research on the microscopic characteristics of medicinal materials is mainly based on transverse/longitudinal section microscopy,followed by powder microscopy.This research focused on different types of medicinal materials.The genetic characteristic data showed that SSR and RAPD are the most commonly used molecular markers for medicinal materials.However,the use of SNPs in the 32 types of entered Dao-di Herbs was limited,indicating that there is still room for development and application of SNP molecular markers.(3)By collating the origin of medicinal materials in the literature according to the frequency of occurrence,and comparing the collated origin with the traditional local real estate areas of Dao-di Herbs,it was found that the changes in modern producing areas show distinct characteristics.Following the expansion of the area of cultivation of medicinal materials,the distribution of some medicinal materials has been quite extensive.There are changes in high-frequency production areas and their local real estate,and some medicinal material production areas continue to radiate from the local real estate area to the core;the distribution of medicinal material origin may also be affected by genetic varieties.Therefore,the change in origin may be related to various factors such as changes in the ancient and modern ecological environment,personnel exchanges,and the demand for traditional Chinese medicine resources.(4)Taking Radix Salviae miltiorrhizae et Rhizoma as an example for comparing the ecological characteristics of high-frequency production areas(Lushi County,Luanchuan County,Lingbao City,Henan province,Ju County,Pingyi County Shandong Province)and traditional production areas(Zhongjiang County,Sichuan province),the results showed that,in Zhongjiang County,the soil pH is more alkaline,the average annual temperature and rainfall are higher than in other producing areas,and the texture is mainly sandy soil.It is speculated that high temperature and humidity in the growth environment is conducive to the growth of roots and the formation of Dao-di Salvia miltiorrhizae.4.Knowledge discoveryBased on the theme "assessing the quality by distinguishing the color of traditional Chinese medicinal materials",a knowledge discovery demonstration study was conducted using the knowledge base of Dao-di Herbs.First,by collating the use of color indicators in the 2015 edition of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia,it was found that there are 277 types of medicinal materials containing color indicators,which are roughly divided into nine categories according to color.Combined with the color data of the characteristics of medicinal materials in the knowledge base,it was found that the quantified values of medicinal material colors have a certain correlation with the relevant components of medicinal materials.The color index can be used as an indicator of the quality of medicinal materials.On this basis,Beiqi was selected as a test object,and the relationship between the characteristics of gold well and jade hurdle"," and its color value was analyzed.The color values of phloem and xylem of Astragalus membranaceus in different producing areas were measured.The data were analyzed statistically using SPSS software,by analysis of variance,cluster analysis,and correlation analysis.The results of analysis of variance showed significant differences in xylem b,phloem L,xylem a and phloem L between samples of different origins,indicating that the use of color values can effectively characterize the main features of "gold well and jade hurdle",and the L value may characterize the main factors in sharp contrast.Correlation analysis results showed that the changes in L,a,and b in the phloem and xylem were consistent.It is presumed that the color-related components and the change rule are the same in both parts,and the change trends of L and b are opposite.It is speculated that the L color component and b color component are affected by antagonistic regulation.The comparison of color values and cluster analysis results of Astragalus membranaceus cross section showed that the characteristics of "gold well and jade hurdle" of Astragalus membranaceus in Shanxi area were more distinctive than those of the species in other origins,indicating that the color value could be used as an index to quickly evaluate the characteristics of A.membranaceus.In the clustering results,Inner Mongolia Wuchuan(WC)was clustered into one category,and the other four producing areas were clustered into another category.It is speculated that moisture is the reason that the cross-section color of Astragalus membranaceus produced in Wuchuan,Inner Mongolia,is significantly different from other producing areas. |
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