Wild or cultivated Glycyrrhiza uralensis FISCHER (G. uralensis) are the main source of licorice, and they contain the similar compounds, such as the triterpenoid saponins and flavonoids, but above two kinds of the components contents are low level in the cultivated licorice. To produce the high quality cultivated licorices, researchers studied the affecting factors about the compounds producing in the plant of licorice, and then found that the growth years, genetic differences and water deficit are all the important factors. In this paper, we found that there were different distribution patterns of the main five active components (FAC) including glycyrrhizin, liquiritin, isoliquiritin, liquiritigenin and isoliquiritigenin in the taproot and stolon of G. uralensis and maybe they are also important influence factors to the FAC contents of the licorices. In wild G. uralensis, the contents of FAC tended to be lower in the younger parts of the stolon, and in the cultivated G. uralensis taproot, the contents of glycyrrhizin, liquiritin and isoliquiritin tended to increase from top to end, contrary to the contents of liquiritigenin and isoliquiritigenin, which increased first and then decreased. Our results will contribute to the analyses of factors which influence the quality of licorice, and provide some reference for cultivating high quality licorices for herbal medicine.
BackgroundWild Rheum tanguticum (Dahuang in Chinese) has becoming endangered in China. This study aims to examine the genetic structure and genetic diversity of R. tanguticum within species, and the genetic differentiation within and among populations in China.MethodsThe variability and structure of 19 populations of R. tanguticum were investigated by their chloroplast DNA matK sequences. The genetic diversity index was calculated by Dnasp, PERMUT, and Arlequin 3.0 software, and a neighbor-joining (NJ)-tree was constructed by MEGA 5.0 software.ResultsFifteen haplotypes were obtained based on the matK sequence analysis. The mean genetic diversity within species was 0.894, and the genetic variability among populations (67.6%) was relatively higher than that within populations (13.88%) according to the AMOVA and PERMUT analyses. The NJ-tree and a pairwise difference analysis indicated geographical isolation of R. tanguticum. The gene flow among populations was 0.05, indicating a genetic drift among some populations, which was also confirmed by the NJ-tree and haplotype distributions. Furthermore, a mismatch distribution analysis revealed the molecular evolution of R. tanguticum.ConclusionGenetic diversity among and within populations of R. tanguticum in China was demonstrated.
The rhizomes and roots of Rheum tanguticum are both used as rhubarb, a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in China. The activatedconstituents, including free anthraquinones, anthraquinone glycosides, dianthrones, flavan-3-ols and hydrolyzable tannins were determined in the aforementioned two medicinal parts by RP-HPLC technique. The results showed the contents of the activated constituents in the roots were generally higher than those in rhizomes, meaning maybe that the medicinal quality of the roots of rhubarb is superior to the rhizomes. These observations do not support the traditional views.
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