[Comparison of leaf morphological characters among different major varieties of Rehmannia glutinosa].

OBJECTIVE: To provide theoretical evidences for the identification and selective breeding of different major varieties of Rehmannia glutinosa by comparing their leaf characters such as the shapes, non-glandular hairs and the size and density of stomata. METHOD: The length, width and the ratio of the length to the width of leaves were measured, and the density and length of the non-glandular hair, the density, size and density of the stomata in the epidermis were measured by scanning electron microscope. RESULT: The results showed that there were obvious differences in length, width and the ratio of the length to the width of leaves, the density and length of the non-glandular hair, the density and size of the stomata in the epidermis. CONCLUSION: The morphological characters of the leaves mentioned above may serve as the identification standards of major varieties of R. glutinosa.

Authentication of Chinese Materia Medica decoction dregs. Part II: comparison before and after decoction of four Chinese Materia Medica that mainly comprise storage tissue.

Authentication of Chinese Materia Medica (CMM) decoction dregs is important for ensuring the efficacy and safety of CMM when they are used in decoction. If someone got worse or poisoned after taking a decoction while the formula is appropriate, the authentication of CMM dregs is the effective method to explore the reasons. Therefore, a systematic study on the authentication of CMM dregs was carried out. In this study, two pairs of easily confused CMM dregs, Fenge (Puerariae Thomsonii Radix) and Shanyao (Dioscoreae Rhizoma), Dihuang (Rehmanniae Radix) and Huangjing (Polygonati Rhizoma), which mostly comprise storage tissues, were investigated by comparing the morphological and microscopic characteristics. Fenge and Shanyao contain abundant starch granules. After decoction their dregs were hard, nonstarchy and horn-like. Fully gelatinized starch granules were found in the powder of Fenge dregs while incompletely gelatinized starch granules were occasionally found in the Shanyao dregs. In contrast, Dihuang and Huangjing contain water-soluble sugars. After decoction, their dregs were hard and brittle. Their parenchymatous cells were shrunken and unknown crystals were found under microscope. Hence, the morphological and microscopic characteristics of CMM before and after decoction were different, and different changes in the CMM dregs can be illustrated by the different nature of their ergastic substance. These differences could be used to authenticate CMM dregs.

Genetic relationships among Rehmannia glutinosa cultivars and varieties.

Many cultivars of Rehmannia glutinosa are grown in China for medicinal uses, but detailed agronomic and morphological descriptions are available for only a few. Knowledge of genetic relationships among most of the cultivars is also scanty and poorly documented. Here, cultivars, varieties and some sexually produced seeds of R. GLUTINOSA were raised in the field and studied for morphological diversity including shape, color, edges of leaves, color of anther, cornal and root, as well as yield of the medicinal part of the roots. Random amplified polymorphism DNA (RAPD) and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) were used to determine genetic relationships and ribosome DNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences were used for analyzing sequence variations and phylogenetic history. The 118 and 1019 polymorphic markers produced by 10 RAPD and 8 AFLP primers discriminated cultivars and varieties satisfactorily. Sixty-eight accessions were clustered in three main groups at 0.69 similarity levels by unweighted pair-group method arithmetic average (UPGMA) cluster analysis using RAPD in combination with AFLP markers. The average polymorphism information content (PIC) and Shannon index were 0.438 and 2.19 in RAPD and 0.476 and 26.68 in AFLP primers, respectively. This indicates that AFLP markers would be more efficient than RAPD for screening large numbers of R. GLUTINOSA accessions. The analysis of ITS sequences indicated that ITS1 - 5.8S-ITS2 of R. GLUTINOSA was informative in its 611 - 614-bp-long sequence and had 106 variable sites. Phylogenetic trees generated based on ITS sequences as well as the dendrogram obtained from two molecular markers identified four accessions: BY3, BY5, BY6 and Wildness6, with great genetic divergence.

[Morphogenesis in formative process in vitro from Rehmannia glutinosa].

OBJECTIVE: To study the morphogenesis in formative process of tuberous root in vitro from Rehmannia glutinosa and compare the anatomical shape of tuberous root with nature term R. glutinosa. METHOD: Tuberous roots of different vegetal phase were cut and dyed, then made into paraffin cuts and observed microscope. RESULT AND CONCLUSION: In anatomical shape, nature R. glutinosa and tuberous root were the same, which showed that no structural variation occurred in tuberous root induced process.

[Comparison and correlative analysis on characters of Rehmannia glutinosa Libosch. Varieties].

OBJECTIVE: To compare the economical characters, yield characters and content of catalpol on Rehmannia glutinosa Libosch. varieties. METHODS: To study characters by field randomized block test and analysis of variance. To analyse the content of catalpol by HPLC. RESULTS: The results by analysis of variance were that the F value in plant width was 15.4 (F0.01 = 5.54), the F value in length of leaves was 12.2, the F value in width of leaves was 13.35, the F value in yield of single plant was 55.7 and the F value in content of catalpol was 8.03. The results by correlative analysis were that the linear correlation coefficient of signal plant yield with length of leaves was 0.9639, with width of leaves was 0.9073, with amount of earthnuts was 0.7060 and with plant fresh weight was 0.9950. The linear correlation coefficient of content of catalpol with plant width was 0.9169, with length of leaves was 0.7046 and with width of leaves was 0.7159. CONCLUSION: There were significant differences in plant width, length of leaves width of leaves, and yield of single plant and content of catalpol of Rehmannia glutinosa Libnosch. varieties. There were significantly positive correlations in signal plant yield with plant fresh weight, length of leaves, width of leaves and amount of earthnuts. There were significantly positive correlations in content of catalpol with plant width, length of leaves and width of leaves.