Red rice (Oryza sativa L.) that has a red (reddish brown) bran layer in de-hulled rice is known to contain rich biofunctional components. Germination is an effective technique to improve the nutritional quality, digestibility, and flavor of de-hulled rice. Ultrasonication, a form of physical stimulation, has been documented as a novel approach to improve the nutritional quality of plant-based food. This study was undertaken to test the use of ultrasound to enhance the nutritional value of red rice. Ultrasonication (5min, 16W/L) was applied to rice during soaking or after 66h germination. Changes of metabolites (amino acids, sugars, and organic acids) in red rice treated by ultrasonication were determined using a GC/MS plant primary metabolomics analysis platform. Differential expressed metabolites were identified through multivariate statistical analysis. Results showed that γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and riboflavin (vitamin B) in red rice significantly increased after germination for 72h, and then experienced a further increase after treatment by ultrasound at different stages during germination. The metabolomics analysis showed that some plant metabolites, i.e. GABA, O-phosphoethanolamine, and glucose-6-phosphate were significantly increased after the ultrasonic treatment (VIP>1.5) in comparison with the untreated germinated rice. The findings of this study showed that controlled germination with ultrasonic stress is an effective method to enhance GABA and other health-promoted components in de-hulled rice.

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Biofortification of staple grains with high contents of essential micronutrients is an important strategy to overcome micronutrient malnutrition. However, few attempts have targeted at γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a functional nutrient for aging populations. In this study, two rice cultivars, Heinuo and Xianhui 207, were used to investigate changes in GABA and other nutritional compounds of dehulled rice after germination under normoxic and hypoxic conditions. Forty-one metabolites were identified in both cultivars treated by normoxic germination, whereas the germinated dehulled rice of Heinuo and Xianhui 207 under hypoxic treatment had 43 and 41 metabolites identified, respectively. GABA increased in dehulled rice after germination, especially under hypoxia. Meanwhile, a number of other health-beneficial and/or flavor-related compounds such as lysine and d-mannose increased after the hypoxic treatment. The accumulation of GABA exhibited genotype-specific modes in both normoxic and hypoxic treatments. With regard to GABA production, Xianhui 207 was more responsive to the germination process than Heinuo, whereas Heinuo was more responsive to hypoxia than Xianhui 207. This study provides a promising approach to biofortify dehulled rice with increased GABA and other nutrients through metabolomic-based regulation.

Chrysanthemum morifolium (Ramat.) has a long history of cultivation and use as a traditional medicine and tea plant in China. A greenhouse experiment with potted soil–quarz mixture studied the effects of nitrogen supply (0, 56, 112, 167, 224, 334, 501, 556, and 668 mg N kg–1) on concentrations and ratios of total flavonoids and chlorogenic acid in the flowers of C. morifolium using spectrophotometric and HPLC methods. The antioxidant activity of the flowers was determined as the radical scavenging activities of hydroxyl, superoxide anion, and 2,2‐diphenyl‐1‐picrylhydrazyl hydrate (DPPH) free radicals. A high N supply decreased the concentrations of total flavonoids by 18%–35% and that of chlorogenic acid by 8%–60% compared to a low N‐supply rate. At the same time, increasing N supply significantly decreased the antioxidant activity of the flowers. The antioxidant activity of C. morifolium flowers was significantly positively correlated with the concentrations of total flavonoids and chlorogenic acid. We conclude that an N supply in excess of 300 mg (kg soil)–1 will negatively affect the antioxidant activity and thereby reduce the quality of C. morifolium flowers.

The vegetative growth and turion formation of Potamogeton crispus, a submersed aquatic macrophyte, was investigated under a range of phosphorus (P) concentrations (0.025, 0.25, 2.5 and 25 mg P L -1 ) in the ambient water free of algae, aiming to identify the responses of submersed aquatic macrophytes to nutrient enrichment, a common eutrophication problem in China and worldwide. Plant growth was not affected by different P concentrations in terms of biomass accumulation of stems and leaves. However, the contents of chlorophyll a and starch in plants decreased with increasing water P levels, whereas chlorophyll b and carotenoids declined with P level ranging from 0.025 to 2.5 mg P L -1 . The soluble sugar content decreased when water P concentration increased up to 2.5 mg L -1 . The P content in plants increased with increasing water P levels, whereas plant N content decreased and soluble protein increased when water P concentration increased over 0.25 mg L -1 , implying that P. crispus may have modified its metabolism to adapt to water P availability. When P concentration increased to 25 mg L -1 , the number and dry matter production of turions per plant decreased significantly. Meanwhile, there was a significant reduction in turion weight and the accumulations of soluble sugar and starch in turion, when water P concentration was over 0.25 mg L -1 . The results suggest that turion formation in P. crispus is sensitive to P concentration in the ambient water, and high P levels may lead to decreases in P. crispus populations due to the decline in turion production.

Atractylodes lancea (Thunb.) DC., named “Cangzhu” in China, which belongs to the Asteraceae family. In some countries of Southeast Asia (China, Thailand, Korea, Japan etc.) its rhizome, commonly called rhizoma atractylodis, is used to treat many diseases as it contains a variety of sesquiterpenoids and other components of medicinal importance. Despite its medicinal value, the information of the sesquiterpenoid biosynthesis is largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the transcriptome analysis of different tissues of non-model plant A. lancea by using short read sequencing technology (Illumina). We found 62,352 high quality unigenes with an average sequence length of 913 bp in the transcripts of A. Lancea. Among these, 43,049 (69.04%), 30,264 (48.53%), 26,233 (42.07%), 17,881 (28.67%) and 29,057(46.60%) unigenes showed significant similarity (E-value<1e-5) to known proteins in Nr, KEGG, SWISS-PROT, GO, and COG databases, respectively. Of the total 62,352 unigenes, 43,049 (Nr Database) open reading frames were predicted. On the basis of different bioinformatics tools we identify all the enzymes that take part in the terpenoid biosynthesis as well as five different known sesquiterpenoids via cytosolic mevalonic acid (MVA) pathway and plastidal methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) pathways. In our study, 6, 864 Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs) were also found as great potential markers in A. lancea. This transcriptomic resource of A. lancea provides a great contribution in advancement of research for this specific medicinal plant and more specifically for the gene mining of different classes of terpenoids and other chemical compounds that have medicinal as well as economic importance.

Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) has strong ability to remove Cu 2+ from copper-contaminated water. Physiological responses in E. crassipes exposed to known concentrations of Cu 2+ were examined in this study, and demonstrated that E. crassipes could accumulate 314 mg kg -1 dry weight of Cu when exposed to 5 mg l -1 of Cu 2+ for periods up to 14 d. However, there were marked changes in physiology of the plant commencing at Cu 2+ concentrations of 1 mg l -1 . Results of this study showed that E. crassipes could tolerate moderate concentrations (i.e. 0.5 mg l -1 ) of Cu 2+ , without significant changes in photosynthetic pigment concentrations, while high concentrations (i.e. 5 and 10 mg l -1 ) of Cu 2+ resulted in substantial loss in pigment concentrations. Increases in malondiadehyde (MDA) content were also demonstrated in plant exposure to high Cu 2+ concentrations. Soluble protein content increased to a level slightly higher than the control at <0.5 mg l -1 of Cu 2+ , but then decreased with exposure to >1 mg l -1 of Cu 2+ . Our results suggest that E. crassipes has a substantial capacity to accumulate copper when cultivated at moderate concentrations of Cu 2+ , without marked changes in its physiology. The findings indicate that E. crassipes is a promising possibility for phytoremediation of moderately Cu-contaminated water bodies.

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