Reserves Estimation And Microscopic Identification Of Some Major Medicinal Plants In Weihai Area

Medicinal plant resources provide basic guarantee for the sustainable development of traditional Chinese medicine,the investigation and evaluation of which are of great significance to its appropriate application and protection.The reserves of key medicinal plant resources are the important evaluation indicators of medicinal plant resources in a region.Weihai is located in the easternmost part of the Shandong Peninsula,having much abundant medicinal plant resources because of its unique geographical location and marine climate characteristics.Currently,there are two urgent problems about the medicinal plant resources in Weihai:Firstly,the amount of medicinal plant resources still remain unclear and the reserves of the key medicinal plants have lacked detailed data,the protection,rational development and utilization of medicinal plant resources thus have been short of guidance.Secondly,inaccurate species identifications have brought many potential dangers to the use of traditional Chinese medicine.Therefore,to resolve those problems in Weihai,we carried out three-year field investigation in Rongcheng and Wendeng area with support of' The fourth national survey on Chinese Materia Medica Resources'.Based on this initial survey result,I investigated reserves and cultivation status of some important medicinal plants.In addition,I used the microscopic identification technology to examine confusing species of medicinal plant in Weihai,and used the anatomical characters to help species identification.The main works and achievements are summarized as follows:First,I investigated wild medicinal plants resources reserves in Weihai in order to solve the problem of the unclear amount of medcinal plant resources.I come to three conclusions.Firstly,some wild medicinal plants species had large reserves in Rongcheng area,they were Smilax china L.,followed by Phytolacca americana L.,Lonicera japonica Thunb,Polygonum perfoliatum L.,Achyranthes bidentata Blume,Sophora flavescens Alt.etc.However,the reserves of some key medicinal plants were limited may be related to lower yield per plant,such as Dianthus superbus L.,Ligusticum jeholense(Nakai et Kitagawa)Nakai et Kitagawa,Denophora tetraphylla(Thunb.)Fisch.,Bupleurum chinense DC.and Pinellia ternata L.Secondly,there were differences between Rongcheng and Wendeng in medicinal plants reserves.In Wendeng,plants with rich reserves were in order of Phytolacca americana L.,Lonicera japonica Thunb.,Achyranthes bidentata Blume,Sophora flavescens Alt.,Pueraria montana(Loureiro)Merrill,Pseudostellaria heterophylla(Miq.)Pax.Some important Chinese herbal medicines in Wendeng had little reserves,such as Bupleurum chinense DC.,Ziziphus jujuba Mill.var.spinosa(Bunge)Hu ex H.F.Chow.Thirdly,the average reserves of most of medicinal plants in the Wendeng area were higher than those in the Rongcheng area,which due to the environmental differences between two areas.Influenced by Kunyu mountain,variable local mountain climate and high altitude that blocks cold air could increase the plant yield,which significantly affected the medical reserves in Wendeng.However,the average reserves of some medicinal plants such as Smilax china L.and Polygonum bistorta L.in Rongcheng area are higher than those in Wendeng area,which probably related to theirs own growth habits.It was obvious that there are great differences in the reserves of wild medicinal plants growing in different habitats.Second,some species easily confusing in morphology are selected and divided into 5 groups.The microscopic identification technology was used to found out anatomical structures of taxonomic values and an identification key based on these characters was established.Third,I investigated on the cultivation status of medcinal plants in Rongcheng and Wendeng,which were well known as the national core areas of the Panax quinquefolius L.Result showed that P.quinquefolius is the main cultivated medicinal herbs and also one of the main economic sources of many towns in Weihai.The cultivated area of P.quinquefolius is up to 4500 ha and the yield is from 300 kg to 500 kg per mu.However,continuous cropping was a serious problem for P.quinquefolius.Based on the results,I put forward measures to improve the planting technology and enrich the diversity of cultivated medicinal plants to promote cultivation sustainable development.This research reveals the the species and distribution of wild medicinal plants in Weihai area as well as those of cultivated species,and shows the survival state and available conditions of some key medicinal plants for the first time.It is the most comprehensive research and analyzation of medicinal plants resourses in Weihai.In addition,I clarify some widely used but easily confused medicinal plant species with Anatomic method.Our research can provide information and reference for further application and conservation of medicinal plants resources,especially the endangered species and the widely used species.