[Herbal textural and original plants research on medicines from Salvia in China].

On the basis of review and study on literatures of Chinese medicine, combining the history of medicinal plants of Salvia in China, and investigating the morphological description, geography distribution and therapeutic effects, herbal textural research were carried on the medicinal plants from Salvia. The results showed that the original plant of Danshen is S. miltiorrhiza and related species, the original plant of Dian Danshen is S. yunnanensis, the original plant of Li Zhi Cao is S. plebeia, the original plant of Shi Jian Chuan is Bidens pilosa. or S.chinensis, the original plant of Shu Wei Cao is S. japanica, the original plant of Ye Xia Hong is S. kiangsiensis. And the article aimed to point out the relationship of medicinal plants from Salvia and provided new insight and proof to explore the new natural medicine from medicinal plants of Salvia.

Performance and responses to competition in two congeneric annual species: does seed heteromorphism matter?

Variations in seed characteristics observed in heteromorphic species may affect various stages of their life cycles, e.g. seed dormancy, germination characteristics or even adult plant performance. Highly specialised seed morphs - described as colonisers and maintainers - exhibit a trade-off between colonisation capacity and competitive traits. The performance of distinct seed morph progeny under competitive conditions, and especially in multi-species arrangements, had previously not been given much attention. In this study, we compared performance and response to competition among distinct seed morph progenies in two congeneric, co-occurring species: the invasive Bidens frondosa and the non-invasive Bidens tripartita. We hypothesised that maintainer seed morphs of both species would perform better under increased plant densities and within inter-morphic mixtures, while coloniser morphs would show stronger responses to increased densities and perform relatively poorly in inter-morphic mixtures. We conducted a growth trial and a greenhouse experiment, which revealed that seed morph progeny differed significantly in plant height when grown without competition, while under competitive conditions such differences became less apparent. The observed pattern was more strongly pronounced in B. frondosa, which showed a general predominance in stature and biomass over its non-invasive congener. Although seed morphs performed equally well under competitive conditions, increased plant height and more rapid germination can favour the maintainer seed morph on sites where vegetation is already present.

[Identification characters of leaf venation of Bidens pilosa with its confused herb Bidens pilosa var. radiata].

OBJECTIVE: To study the leaf venation characteristics of Bidens pilosa and B. pilosa var. radiata and establish an identification method. METHOD: LMVP (leaf morphological-venation pattern for identification Chinese herbs), and QAERM (quantitatively analyze and evaluate reliability for the method of identification Chinese herbs) were applied for the study. RESULT: Under the transmission-light, the tertiary vein of B. pilosa was discrete, the color was darker, the size was bigger, the shape was short curve, short linear, spot-like and branch-like. However the tertiary vein of B. pilosa var. radiata was continuous linear and color lighter. With the mentioned key difference, the both plants could be successfully identified from each other, the accuracy of identification results (AC) was from 96.7% to 97.7%. The repeatability of identification results: agreement rate for observation (ARO) was 95.1% and Kappa value was 0.90. CONCLUSION: The established method is simple, rapid, economic and reliable.

[Textural research on "Shidachuan" and "Shijianchuan" in "Ben Cao Gang Mu Shi Yi" (a supplement to the compendium of materia medica)].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the historical origins of folk herbal medicines "Shidachuan" and "Shijianchuan" METHOD: The origins of "Shidachuan" and "Shijianchuan" were confirmed by textural research and investigation of therapeutic effects. RESULTS: In "Ben Cao Gang Mu" (the Compendium of Materia Medica) "Shidachuan" was not recorded, and "Shijianchuan" was listed only as a medicine of "nomination without use", with the habitat and morphology being blank. CONCLUSION: The "Shidachuan" which was originally recorded in "Ben Cao Gang Mu Shi Yi" (A Supplement to the Compendium of Materia Medica) should be "Longyacao" (Agrimonia pilosa) of Rosaceae family. "Shijianchuan" should be "Guizhencao" (Bidens bipinata) of Compositae family instead of "Huashuweicao" (Salvia chinensis) of Labiatae family. The herbal medicine recorded as "shijianchuan" in "Chinese Pharmacopoeia" is the very species of Salvia chinensis, which is considered as a new rising species of "Shijianchuan".