[Study on correlation between effective ingredients of dogwood fruit from genuine producing regions and traits].

OBJECTIVE: In order to provide a theoretical foundation for the medically effective ingredient-based selection of elite cultivars in Comnus officinalis, a study has been conducted on the variation in medicinal effective ingredients of the fruit from the genuine producing areas, the correlation among effective medicinal ingredients and the correlation between effective ingredients and fruit shape as well as nutritional indexes. METHOD: The completely mature fruit was collected from the genuine producing areas Chunan county and Lin'an city of Zhejiang province. The contents of colchicine, ursolic acid and oleanolic acid were determined by HPLC, and vertical diameter/transversal diameter of the fruits, soluble solid matter and percentage of fresh flesh to the fruit were also measured. RESULT: (1) Ursolic acid, oleanolic acid, and colchicine in fruits ranged from 0.1010% to 0.4786%, 0.0149% to 0.1274% and 0.59% to 2.30%, respectively, and their RSD were 34.33%, 40.48% and 28.50%, respectively. (2) The correlation between effective ingredients and that between effective ingredients and fruit shape as well as nutritional indexes were as follows: the content of ursolic acid was significantly correlated with that of oleanolic acid with a correlation coefficient of 0.9796; both ursolic acid and oleanolic acid were in significantly negative correlation with soluble solid matter with a correlation coefficient of -0.5544 and -0.5118, respectively; colchicine was significantly associated with soluble solid matter with a correlation coefficient of 0.2412; colchicine, ursolic acid and oleanolic acid were in significantly negative correlation with the percentage of fresh flesh with a correlation coefficient of -0.2507, -0.2443 and -0.2406, respectively; three effective ingredients showed no correlation with the ratio of vertical diameter to transversal diameter of the fruit. CONCLUSION: There is a significant difference in effective ingredients among individual trees, which means that there is a big potential for selection of cultivars. Individual tree-based selection should be mainly adopted when effective ingredients are used as a main index in selection on the basis of the correlation among effective ingredients and that between effective ingredients and fruit shape as well as nutritional indexes, while ursolic acid could be combined with oleanolic acid to be used as an index and a preliminary screen could be conducted using soluble solid matter.

[Photosynthetic acclimation to elevated CO2 in strawberry leaves grown at different levels of nitrogen nutrition].

Photosynthetic characteristics of strawberry (Fragaria ananassa Duch cv. 'Toyonoka') leaves grown in either elevated CO(2) (700 microL/L) or ambient CO(2) (390 microL/L), and at three levels of nitrogen nutrition (12 mmol/L, 4 mmol/L, 0.4 mmol/L) were studied. The results showed that for strawberry grown in 12 mmol/L nitrogen, P(n), maximal carboxylation rate (V(c, max)), maximal linear electron flow through photosystem II (J(max)), electron flow to the photosynthetic carbon reduction cycle (J(c)) and q(P) were all significantly higher in plants grown and measured at elevated CO(2) than for plants grown and measured at ambient CO(2) (Table 1 and 2, Fig. 2), which were due to a significant increase in J(c) exceeding any suppression of electron flow to the photorespiratory carbon oxidation cycle (J(o)). This increase in photochemistrical quenching with decreased non-photochemistrical quenching (q(N) or NPQ) at elevated CO(2) alleviated photoinhibition by high light (Table 2, Fig. 3). For plants grown at 4 mmol/L and 0.4 mmol/L nitrogen, P(n), V(c, max), J(c) and q(P) were all significantly lower in plants grown and measured at elevated CO(2) than for plants grown and measured at ambient CO(2) (Table 1 and 2, Fig. 2). Consistent with decreased photochemistrical quenching and increased non-photochemistrical quenching (q(N) or NPQ), for leaves grown at 4 mmol/L and 0.4 mmol/L nitrogen, the photoinhibition was aggravated by elevated CO(2) (Table 2, Fig. 3). Elevated CO(2) suppressed J(o) in leaves of plants grown at 12 mmol/L, 4 mmol/L and 0.4 mmol/L nitrogen (Fig. 2). The results above suggested that deficient nitrogen (4 mmol/L and 0.4 mmol/L nitrogen) and elevated CO(2) result in an acclimatory decrease of photosynthesis in leaves of plant grown in elevated CO(2).