Study On The Geographic Variation Of Main Economic Characters Of Sapindus Mukorossi

Sapindus mukorossi is a deciduous arbor belonging to Genus Sapindus. The saponin of its pericarp is the ideal raw material of cosmetics and detergent environmentally and friendly. Oil from its seed kernel can be developed in the bio-diesel. So it is a potentially important economic specie. Based on field survey and seeds collecting, the geographic variations of fruit morphological traits, contents of seed kernel oil and pericarp saponin are studied, then the results are as follows:(1) The geographic variations of morphological traits of Sapindus mukorossi fruitsExtremely significant differences are found according to the study on fruit traits of sapindus mukorossi from nine different areas. Weight and volume are easily influenced by environmental factors. There is a certain correlation between Fruit traits and geographical factors. With latitude reducing, annual sunshine hours increasing and rainfall decreasing, the weight and volume of fruit and seed increase. With longitude increasing, the pericarp becomes thickened. Cluster analysis shows that fruit characters of Sapindus mukorossi are clustered basing on geographic origin.(2) The geographic variations of seed kernel rate and content of kernel oilExtremely significant differences are found between content of seed kernel oil and kernel rate from different areas. And the differences from different individuals is bigger than producing areas'. The producing areas with highest oil content are Suichang ,Qingyuan in Zhejiang province and Longzhou in Guangxi province, Xixia in Henan province is of the lowest oil content. Fruits from Qingyuan, Tiantai and Xixia have the high kernel rate, and the lower are from Wuyi Mountain in Fujian province and Yifeng in Jiangxi province. Correlation analysis shows that the correlation between the contents of seed kernel oil and the geographical factors is not obvious, but the kernel rate increases significantly with the increasing of annual average sunshine hours.(3) The geographic variations of the saponin content of pericarpSignificant differences are found in the saponin content of preicarp between producing areas and individuals, and the differences from producing areas are bigger than individuals'. The higher content is from Yifeng in Jiangxi province, Rongjiang in Guizhou province, Longzhou in Guangxi province. There is no significant correlation between saponin content and rainfall, latitude, annual mean temperature, annual average sunshine hours in different producing areas,but there is a significant negative correlation with longitude, and a significant positive correlation with altitude.(4) Study on the genetic variation of seedling stage traits of Sapindus mukorossiThe growth process of Sapindus mukorossi at seedling stage can be divided into 3 periods: early growth period, fast-growing period and induration period. The fast-growing period is from the late May to early October. Seedling height of Sapindus mukorossi don't synchronize with seedling diameter. The growth peak of seedling diameter is later than seedling height. From the perspective of genetic parameters, the seedling height and base diameter of the provenance and family all have a high heritability. Correlation analysis shows that growth of seedling height and base diameter are remarkably correlated to latitude, annual average temperature and hours of sunshine.