The Fight Against Panax notoginseng Root-Rot Disease Using Zingiberaceae Essential Oils as Potential Weapons

Abstract

The root of Panax notoginseng (P. notoginseng) is one of the most highly valuable medicinal herbs in China owing to its pronounced hemostatic and restorative properties. Despite this important fact, growing P. notoginseng is seriously limited by root-rot diseases. In studies aimed at developing a solution to this problem, environment-friendly essential oils (EOs) of five medicinal plants of the family Zingiberaceae were tested for their inhibitory effects on the growth of three main soil pathogens associated with the root-rot diseases of P. notoginseng. The results showed that the EOs of Alpinia katsumadai Hayata and Zingiber officinale Roscoe promote significant reductions in the mycelium growth of the pathogen in vitro at a concentration of 50 mg mL−1, which is much higher than that needed (5 mg mL−1) to reduce growth by the positive control, flutriafol. Furthermore, the chemical components of the two EOs were determined by using GC-MS analysis. Eucalyptol was found to account for more than 30% of the oils of the two plants, with the second major components being geranyl acetate and α-terpineol. These substances display different degrees of fungistasis in vitro. To further determine the effects of the EO of Zingiber officinale (Z. officinale) in vivo, soilless cultivation of P. notoginseng with pathogen inoculation was conducted in a greenhouse. Addition of the petroleum ether extract (approximately equal to EO) of Z. officinale to the culture matrix causes a large decrease in both the occurrence and severity of the P. notoginseng root-rot disease. The decreasing trend of net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (gs), intercellular CO2 concentration (Ci), and transpiration rate (Tr) were all alleviated. In addition, the activities of catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD), and the malondialdehyde (MDA) content were also largely reduced after pathogen infection, with the root activity being higher than that of the control. Taken together, the findings reveal that the EOs from plants might serve as promising sources of eco-friendly natural pesticides with less chemical resistance.

Monitoring Antifungal Agents of Artemisia annua against Fusarium oxysporum and Fusarium solani, Associated with Panax notoginseng Root-Rot Disease

“…In the previous study, EOs from either Alpinia officinarum Hance and Amomum tsao-ko ( Zingiberaceae ) are found to have a good inhibition against the F. oxysporum , F. solani , and C. destrutans [26], and the EOs of Alpinia Katsumadai Hayata and Zingiber officinal Roscoe also have significant reductions in the mycelium growth of the pathogen in vitro [27]. This is corroborated by our findings.…”

Chemical Constituents of the Essential oil fromCuminum cyminumL. and Its Antifungal Activity againstPanax notoginsengPathogens

“…To simulate the antifungal effect of CEO in vivo, the growth of P. notoginseng was studied by adding CEO into the matrix. [24] Experimental studies in vivo showed that the disease incidence and index of F. oxysporum groups were higher than those of other groups, and the fresh and dry weights of the roots, stems and leaves were lower than those of the four groups. In particular, the weight of the roots was particularly low in the F. oxysporum group, indicating that F. oxysporum had a strong pathogenicity to P. notoginseng.…”

The Transcriptome and Metabolome Reveal Stress Responses in Sulfur-Fumigated Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.)

“…In brief, collected leaves were ground using liquid nitrogen, and SOD, POD, and MDA were extracted using the extraction buffer. The extracts were centrifuged at 12,000 × g for 10 min, and the supernatants were then measured for SOD, POD activities, and MDA contents using the multimode microplate reader (Tecan, Switzerland) ( Yin et al, 2018 ). Each indicator had three replicate measurements.…”