Evaluation of morphological and phytochemical characteristics of Mesona chinensis populations in southern China

Abstract

Mesona chinensis Benth. is a herbal plant with both edible and medicinal values. Thirty-four populations of M. chinensis in southern China were examined to quantify their morphological and phytochemical characteristics. The results showed that the populations differed significantly (p < 0.01) in each of the morphological and phytochemical characteristics. The morphological characteristics showed wide variation among populations, with CV values ranging from 15.76% to 54.18%. The herbage yield was mainly positively correlated with a number of stem traits. The cluster analysis showed that the populations belong to two major groups. Both total phenolic (TPh) contents and total flavonoid (TF) contents respectively ranged from 5.49 to 18.44 and 5.06 to 11.47 mg.g −1 among populations. Antioxidant activity, evaluated by means of ABTS (2, 2-azino-bis-3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) and DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) assays, ranged from 63.91 to 223.41 and 30.35 to 137.84 mmol Trolox equivalents.g −1 , respectively, among populations. Significant positive correlations were found between antioxidant activity and TF contents, TPh contents, and total polysaccharide (TP) contents. Most of the 34 populations were rich in polysaccharides, while GD-6, GD-12, GD-3, GD-8, JX-6, and FJ-1 had the highest TP content in turn. Based on comprehensive grey correlation analysis, GD-1, GD-2, GD-8, FJ-6, FJ-3, FJ-2, JX-6, GD-7, JX-3, and JX-2 were the best performers for production and quality of M. chinensis in southern China.

Encapsulation of Mesona chinensis Benth Extract in Alginate Beads Enhances the Stability and Antioxidant Activity of Polyphenols under Simulated Gastrointestinal Digestion

“…In addition to consuming it as a herbal drink and as grass jelly (a gelatin-type dessert), M. chinensis has been used as a traditional medicine to treat hypertension, diabetes, and liver diseases [ 1 ]. The extract of M. chinensis leaf has been reported to contain polyphenols with kaempferol and caffeic acid as the major bioactive compounds [ 2 ]. Due to the high polyphenol content, M. chinensis possesses antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiglycation, and antihyperglycemic activities [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ].…”

“…The extract of M. chinensis leaf has been reported to contain polyphenols with kaempferol and caffeic acid as the major bioactive compounds [ 2 ]. Due to the high polyphenol content, M. chinensis possesses antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiglycation, and antihyperglycemic activities [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]. The consumption of M. chinensis extract helps to improve plasma antioxidant status and attenuate postprandial glucose following a high-carbohydrate meal in overweight participants [ 6 ].…”

Simulation of citrus production space based on MaxEnt

“…According to the existing research conclusions, 35 environmental variables of seven types affecting the distribution of citrus production were selected (Table 2) (Li and Xie, 2003;Su et al, 2017;Lin et al, 2019;Lin et al, 2021). Variable 1) to Variable 12) are the average annual values from 1980 to 2015 obtained from the daily meteorological data of 42 meteorological stations calculated by MATLAB (Figure 1).…”

“…The spatial heterogeneity of labor, farmers' behavior, production costs, consumption, policy and technological progress on different spatial and temporal scales has an increasingly strong impact on spatial changes (Xiang et al, 2014;Wang and Qi, 2018). Spatial change has changed from natural driving to common driving of nature and humanity (Lin et al, 2021). Second, it is difficult to determine the representative indicators and their thresholds.…”

Functionality and Health-Promoting Properties of Polysaccharide and Plant-Derived Substances from Mesona chinensis

“…This review discussed the recent scientific information on the Mesona plant regarding the composition of its phytochemicals and its alteration of gut microbiota, as well as its health benefits. Several bioactive compounds and polysaccharide components have been reported to have various pharmacological effects including antioxidant activities [25], hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic activities [26,27], antiproliferative activities [28], a growth inhibitory effect on hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cells [15], anti-dyslipidemia activities [29], renalprotective activities [30], antihypertensive [31] and DNA damage-protective activities [32], anti-inflammatory activities [33], antimutagenic effects [34], and antibiosis activities [35].…”