[Correlation between color of Scutellariae Radix pieces and content of five flavonoids after softening and cutting by different methods].

Scutellariae Radix is one of the commonly used heat-clearing and damp-drying drugs in clinical practice. Establishment of the quality evaluation system for Scutellariae Radix is of great significance to ensure safety and effectiveness of clinical drug use.Scutellariae Radix pieces were prepared under different processing conditions with 3 softening methods: boiling,atmospheric steaming and pressurized steaming. High performance liquid chromatography( HPLC) method was used to determine the content of five flavonoids in Scutellariae Radix,and L*,a*,b*values representing color chromaticity of Scutellariae Radix powder were measured by colorimeter,then total color value E*was calculated. Simple correlation and canonical correlation analysis was used to explore the correlation between color of Scutellariae Radix powder and content of five flavonoids. The results showed that the contents of baicalin and wogonoside were significantly positively correlated with L*,b*and E*values,but negatively correlated with a*value. The contents of wogonin,apigenin,and melaleuca A were positively correlated with a*value,but negatively correlated with L*,b*,and E*values( P<0. 01). There was a significant negative correlation between the content of flavonoid glycosides and flavonoid aglycones( P<0. 01).All of these indicated that the color of Scutellariae Radix powder was significantly correlated with content of five flavonoids. The experiment results proved that when color difference between Huangqin pieces and medicinal materials was kept at ΔL*<6,Δb*<3,ΔE*<6,the total amount of the two glycosides in the pieces was about ±1. 5% of the medicinal materials; in this case,the total amount of the two glycosides was relatively high and stable,indicating that the color of Huangqin decoction pieces is a concrete manifestation of its intrinsic quality,and the chromaticity value detected by colorimeter can be used as a means to quickly evaluate the quality of Scutellariae Radix pieces. The results provide a new detection index for the characteristic quality evaluation system of Scutellariae Radix pieces.

[Carbon storage of Pinus thunbergii and Robinia pseudoacacia plantations on Nanchangshan Island, Changdao County of Shandong Province, China].

Using indigenous tree species to transform large area pure plantations has been an effective close-to-nature forest management mode in China islands. By using the biomass allometric equation and combined with the investigation data from sampling plots, the carbon storage of the dominant species Pinus thunbergii and Robinia pseudoacacia in the plantations on the Nanchangshan Island of Miaodao Archipelago in Changdao County of Shandong Province was estimated. The average carbon storage in the arbor layer of P. thunbergii and R. pseudoacacia plantations was 56.81 and 37.26 t x hm(-2), respectively, being higher than the average carbon stock (27.62 t x hm(-2)) of tree plantations in Shandong Province. Slope aspect and stand density were the important environmental and biological factors affecting the tree's carbon stock in the Island, respectively. There was no significant correlation between the average cumulative rate of biomass in the arbor layer of P. thunbergi plantation and the stand age. The P. thunbergii with good carbon sequestration function could be an ideal tree species on Nanchangshan Island.

[Phytoplankton assemblages and their relation to environmental factors by multivariate statistic analysis in Bohai Bay].

A detailed field survey of hydrological, chemical and biological resources was conducted in the Bohai Bay in spring and summer 2007. The distributions of phytoplankton and their relations to environmental factors were investigated with multivariate analysis techniques. Totally 17 and 23 taxa were identified in spring and summer, respectively. The abundance of phytoplankton in spring was 115 x 10(4) cells x m(-3), which was significantly higher than that in summer (3.1 x 10(4) cells x m(-3)). Characteristics of phytoplankton assemblages in the two seasons were identified using principal component analysis (PCA), while redundancy analysis (RDA) was used to examine the environmental variables that may explain the patterns of variation of the phytoplankton community. Based on PCA results, in the spring, the phytoplankton was mainly distributed in the center and northern water zone, where the nitrate nitrogen concentration was higher. However, in summer, phytoplankton was found distributed in all zones of Bohai Bay, while the dominant species was mainly distributed in the estuary. RDA indicated that the key environmental factors that influenced phytoplankton assemblages in the spring were nitrate nitrogen (NO3(-) -N), nitrite nitrogen (NO2(-) -N) and soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP), while ammonium nitrogen (NH4(+) -N) and water temperature (WT) played key roles in summer.

Long-term (1996-2006) variation of nitrogen and phosphorus and their spatial distributions in Tianjin coastal seawater.

The spatio-temporal varying characteristics of dissolved inorganic nitrogen, reactive phosphate (RP), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and dissolving oxygen (DO) in Tianjin coastal seawater were investigated based on observation from May 1996 to October 2006. The concentrations of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN), RP and COD ascended gradually and their varying ranges were 0.103-2.432, 0.009-0.12, and 0.8-2.9 mg L(-1), respectively. While DO in seawater decreased from 8.9 to 6.1 mg L(-1) gradually. Those indicated that human-induced eutrophication occurred and the seawater quality deteriorated. The spatial distributions of DIN, RP and COD were largely uniform, where isopleths generally descended from estuarine zones and bays to the central areas and from northern area to southern area, indicating that continental input is the dominant source of those pollutants. Especially, peak zones of those pollutants usually appeared near estuaries, Tianjin harbors, and dumping site of dredged sediment, which indicates that the urban and industrial sewage, shipping waste, dredged soil were the main sources for those contaminants in seawater.