Comprehensive evaluation of yield and quality of Chuanmingshen violaceum based on principal component and cluster analysis / 中草药

ABSTRACT

Objective: To comprehensively compare and evaluate the yield and quality of Chuanmingshen violaceum and provide a basis for breeding and high-yield cultivation. Methods: The principal component analysis of eight main agronomic characters and two quality characters from 25 cultivated populations of C. violaceum came from different origins in Sichuan Province were analyzed, and the comprehensive evaluation and cluster analysis were carried out. Results: The results showed that fresh and dry weight of stem and leaf, fresh and dry weight of root and polysaccharide content had greater coefficients of variation among species, while plant height, length, and diameter of taproot had smaller coefficients of variation. Principal component analysis showed that the 10 main traits might be represented by four principal components, and the cumulative contribution rate was 87.304%, and induced that high yield factor, quality factor, plant type factor, and plant height factor respectively. The comprehensive score of sample 1 was the highest, which was the low-height, high-yield, and good-quality material, and the comprehensive score of sample 13 was the lowest, which was the high-height and high-quality and low-yield material. The test materials could be divided into five types by cluster analysis, namely, long-term and high-yield and high-quality material, heavy-root and poor-quality material, low-yield and poor-quality material, high-height and low-yield and good-quality material, and dwarf and high-yield and good-quality material. Conclusion: The comprehensive evaluation method is reliable by the principal component analysis and cluster analysis. The resource of C. violaceum in Sichuan is rich. We can choose some high quality resources among them to provide the basis for the selection of new varieties of Sichuan Province.