Studies On Major Characterisics Of Atractylodes Lancea From Different Leaf Types

Atractylodes lancea (Thub.) DC is a kind of perennial herbaceous plant in Asteraceae family, which is one of the important traditional Chinese medical herbs in China and widely used for relieving rheumatism and cold, drying damp and strengthening spleen, and improving eyesight and so on. In recent years, A. lancea has been a kind of scarce resources, so there is no other choice than the exploration of artificial cultivation technique for A. lancea in order to balance the relationship between the big market demand and the shortage of A. lancea resources. The main physiological characteristics, photosynthesis’index and the contents of active ingredients in the rhizome of A. lancea during the harvest stage were studied in three different leaf types from the population of A. lancea in Hubei Province in order to provide the scientific guidance for the breeding and selection of high-quality and yield varieties of A. lancea. The main results are as followed:1. The main morphological characteristics of A. lancea tested under the same growth environment were almost similar but the apparent differences in leaf shape which could be easily divided into three types of long-ellipse, ellipse and sharp based on leaf shape.2. The strain with long-ellipse shaped leaf showed the highest photosynthetic capacity among the three. Almost the similar change tendency was found between the contents of soluble sugar and soluble protein in the rhizome, but the negative correlations exhibited between the contents of soluble sugar and soluble protein in leaves of A. lancea during the same growth and developing stages. The content of soluble sugar in the rhizome of the strain with long-ellipse shaped leaf was significantly higher than that of the other two strains only in July, whereas the content of soluble protein in the rhizome of the strain with long-ellipse shaped leaf was the lowest among the three tested strains. The rhizome yield per plant of the strain with long-ellipse shaped leaf was significantly higher than that of the other two strains in Hubei A. lancea.3. The significant differences of the contents of rhizome extracts which were one of index used to evaluate the quality of rhizome were found among the three tested strains, which showed the order as followed: the long-ellipse shaped leaf> the ellipse-shaped leaf> the sharp-shaped leaf.4. The contents of two of polyethylene acetylene compounds such as Atractylodin and (4E,6E,12E) fourteen decatrienoic alkyne-8,10-diene1,3-diacetate which were main active ingredients in the rhizome of A. lancea and Atractylenolide Ⅱ followed the same trend between the three strains, and their contents in the strain with long-ellipse shaped leaf were the lowest, but the content of another kind of polyacetylene compound of Atractylodinol in the rhizome of the sharp-shaped leaf was much lower than the other two strains. The three strains based on leaf shape could also be distinguished by HPLC fingerprints dependent on the methanol extracts from the related rhizome, because the differences showed not only in relative peak areas with the same retention time corresponding to the components but also in specific peaks among the three tested strains.5. There was a big difference in heavy metal contents in rhizome between the three different tested strains of A. lancea. The level of heavy metals such as As, Pb, Cd in the strain of long ellipse-shaped leaf was less than that of the other two, and all of them was within a limited range for the green Chinese medical herbs products.6. Correlation analysis results showed that the rhizome yield per plant of A. lancea positively correlated to its net photosynthetic rate, soluble protein contents in leaf, soluble protein contents in rhizome, but significantly negatively correlated with soluble sugar contents in rhizome. There was a positive correlation between the main active ingredients such as Atractylenolide Ⅱ and (4E,6E,12E) fourteen decatrienoic alkyne-8,10-diene1,3-diacetate, and a negative correlation between Atractylodin and Atractylodinol.