Chemical and morphological variations of Panax notoginseng and their relationship

• Published in: Phytochemistry (Oxford) 2013-09, Vol.93, p.88-95
• Main Authors: Wang, Dong, Koh, Hwee-Ling, Hong, Yan, Zhu, Hong-Tao, Xu, Min, Zhang, Ying-Jun, Yang, Chong-Ren
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Araliaceae; biochemical polymorphism; cultivars; medicinal plants; Molecular Structure; Panax notoginseng; Panax notoginseng - anatomy & histology; Panax notoginseng - chemistry; peduncle; Phenotype; Relationship; Saponin; Saponins - analysis; selection methods; variance; Variation
• ISSN: 0031-9422; 1873-3700
• DOI: 10.1016/j.phytochem.2013.03.007

Individual plants of Panax notoginseng were greatly diversified in saponin composition and morphological features. Some morphological characters, such as root weight, were correlated with saponin concentration and can be used as important traits to judge the level of saponin content. •P. notoginseng was diversified in its concentrations and proportions of saponins.•P. notoginseng showed remarkable differences in morphological features.•P. notoginseng is a mixed farm cultivar having great variations.•High variance suggests the possibility of breeding for higher saponin production.•Some phenotypic features correlated with saponin concentrations. A collection of 70 randomly selected three-year-old Panax notoginseng plants was analyzed to evaluate the germplasmic resources of cultivated notoginseng. The results obtained indicated that the individual plants of P. notoginseng were greatly diversified not only in saponin contents, but also in morphological features. It was further proven that, after hundreds years of cultivation, notoginseng has become a mixed farm cultivar with very large variations occurring. This high variance in saponin contents implies the possibility for breeding of this medicinal plant in order to obtain cultivars with higher saponin production. Statistic analysis of correlation between morphologic variation and chemical variation suggests that some morphological characters, such as root weight, plant height and peduncle length, can be correlated with saponin contents and can be used as important selective traits for selective breeding.