The correlation between bioactive components of Fallopia multiflora root and environmental factors.

Fallopia multiflora (Thunb.) Harald, a traditional Chinese medicinal plant, is used in treating dizziness. In this study, the samples of F. multiflora from ten different locations were collected, and five bioactive components (2, 3, 5, 4'-tetrahydroxystilbene-2-O-beta-D-glucoside, emodin, emodin-8-O-beta-D-glucoside, physcion and physcion-8-O-beta-D-glucoside) were quantified by high performance liquid chromatography. The correlations between 17 environmental factors and 5 bioactive components were analyzed. The results showed that the highest contents of bioactive components were in samples from Deqing, and the lowest in samples from Tianyang, which indicated that the quality of F. multiflora grown in Deqing was superior, while that grown in Tianyang was inferior. Emodin content was negatively correlated with the average temperature in January (p < 0.01) and the accumulated temperature (p < 0.01). Physician content was also negatively correlated with the average temperature in January (P < 0.01), the accumulated temperature (p < 0.05) and the organic matter (p < 0.05). However, emodin was positively correlated with the soil available K (p < 0.05) and Zn (p < 0.01). The results of stepwise regression showed that the accumulated temperature was the main factor influencing the contents of emodin and physcion. However, none of the environmental factors had significant correlation with 2, 3, 5, 4'-tetrahydroxystilbene-2-O-beta-D-glucoside, emodin-8- O-beta-D-glucoside and physcion-8-O-beta-D-glucoside. In conclusion, some environmental factors have significant influence on the content of dissociated anthraquinones, while some have no influence on that of combined anthraquinones.

[Landscape change during rapid urbanization in Shenzhen].

By using the satellite images of 4 periods of time, including the data from Thematic Mapper (TM), Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), Multi Spectral Scanner (MSS) and SPOT this paper analyzed the landscape change in Shenzhen Special Economic Zone of Guangdong Province, South China in 1979-2003, aimed to study the temporal-spatial landscape change characteristics, their causes, and major driving forces in this zone. The results revealed that the characteristic of landscape change were completely different among test three periods (1979-1990, 1990-2000 and 2000-2003). During the first period (1979-1990), urbanization developed very rapidly, and the natural vegetations mainly in Futian, Luohu and Yantian districts degraded and transformed into a landscape with anthropogenic components. In the second period (1990-2000), landscape conversion mainly took place in Nanshan and Futian districts, where various types of landscape were transformed into impervious surfaces, and parts of the vegetations were transformed into anthropogenic landscapes. During this period, typical urban characteristics were formed, whereas the remaining vegetations, especially forest stand, were little disturbed. In the third period (2000-2003), subtle consolidation was observed, and the use of pervious material in certain areas counteracted the adverse ecological impacts of urbanization. The extent of urbanization still increased, but the intensity of landscape change was at lower level than that in previous periods.