SM Group To Investigate And Biodiversity Assessment Medicinal Plant Resources

Sect.Drymosphace plants were classified into the subgenus Subg.Sclarea, the genus Salvia L. and the family Lamiaceae. There are12species of plants in this group, including Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge, which was prescribed as the traditional medicine by the calendar version of the People’s Republic of China. The distribution of Sect.Drymosphace plants especially for S.miltiorrhiza are mainly in the north of China, while species of S. prionitis and S. trijuga were mainly distributed in the southwest of China,and widely used as genuine alternatives in the origin of Salvia miltiorrhiza. Recent years have witness the increasing of Salvia miltiorrhiza demand, and the same chemical composition of Salvia miltiorrhiza have also been found in Sect.Drymosphace plants, that resulting the wild plants resources were destroyed. Therefore, studies need to seriously investigate the distribution of Sect.Drymosphace plant resource and the genetic relationship and diversity of species within the section. Currently, most of the reports focused on the genetic diversity of active ingredients, while less attention was paid on the systematic studies of resource situation and the similarities and differences between phenotypic characters and chemical components for Sect.Drymosphace plants. For this purpose, this article conducted analysis on the genetic diversity of Sect.Drymosphace plants based on field collection together with digital record information derived from specimen platforms. The maximum entropy (MaxEnt) model and geo-information system software (ArcGIS) were used to predict the potential distribution of Sect.Drymosphace plants, and the statistics software SPSS was used to evaluate and analyze the phenotypic characters and chemical components of Sect.Drymosphace plants. The main results were as follows:1. The reserve of Sect.Drymosphace plant resource was very abundant in China, which was largely greater than their present distribution.By comparatively analyzing the record distribution from digital specimens of eight Sect.Drymosphace plants and the potential distribution result, it is therefore observed that the potential suitable areas for S.miltiorrhiza were likely close to those for S. honania, which were mainly distributed in northern China, including Henan and Hebei Provinces. Significant differences exist between the distribution areas of S.miltiorrhiza and other six Sect.Drymosphace plants. For S. bowleyana and S. prionitis, the suitable areas were mainly distributed in central and southern China. S. cavaleriei was mainly distributed in the south areas of the Yellow River. While for S. plectranthoides, S. trijuga and S. yunnanensis, the suitable areas focused on the southwestern China, including Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces. The result of potential distribution would lay foundations for the collection, classification and determination of Sect.Drymosphace plant resource.2. Sect.Drymosphace plants have abundant phenotypic characters with similarities and differences between plant individuals. The load analysis on principal component of phenotypic characters indicated that the color of stems and leaves, leaf surface characters and branches of aerial parts played critical roles in the classification of Sect.Drymosphace plants. While for the load analysis of principal chemical ingredients, cinnamic acid, ferulaic acid, ethyl protocatechuate, cryptotanshinone II A and tanshinone I were of important significance for the classification of Sect.Drymosphace plants.3. Large differences exist between chemical components of Sect.Drymosphace plants, and can be used for cluster analysis. The scatter clustering diagram showed that S.honania, S.plectranthoides and S.yunnanensis were located in the same quadrant, thus they were clustered into the same group. S.miltiorrhiza, S.bowleyana and S.trijuga were clustered into the same group. S.prionitis and S. cavaleriei were located in different quadrants; therefore they were clustered into different groups. The scatter clustering result was basically consistent with that of Q clustering. The result of PCA scatter diagram on24active ingredients showed that the six species with high similarity could be clustered into the same group except S.trijuga and S.yunnanensis, which were nearly in agreement with the similarity evaluation result.4. The evaluation analysis indicated significant differences between the active ingredients in the pharmacopoeia of Sect.Drymosphace plants. The contents of cryptotanshinone Ⅱ A and salvianolic acid B for the two relatives including S. cavaleriei and S. prioniti, were higher than the standards of that in S.miltiorrhiza. Species with the content of salvianolic acid B reached the standard of that in S.miltiorrhiza, S. yunnanensis, S. bowleyana, S. honania and S. prionitis. For S.honania, the content of cryptotanshinone II A of Sect.Drymosphace plants was above S.miltiorrhiza. This is probably partly responsible for the fact that the relatives of S.miltiorrhiza in Sect.Drymosphace were used as substitutes of S.miltiorrhiza in some areas of China.