Authentication of Brazilian Ginseng using Bar-HRM analysis

Abstract Hebanthe eriantha (Martius) Kuntze and Pfaffia glomerata (Spreng) Pedersen are medicinal plants popularly known as "Brazilian Ginseng" due to their similarity to Panax ginseng. In Brazil, they are sold as the same herb, despite their different pharmacological and toxicological properties. The morphological identification is difficult, which facilitates their adulteration. We report the application of the Barcode DNA High-Resolution Melting (Bar-HRM) using matK gene to differentiate both species in samples sold in the Brazilian market. Using the proposed method, we could discriminate and identify both species. Bar-HRM analysis allowed discriminating and identifying both species. It allowed the identification of H. eriantha and P. glomerata in 43.6% and 56.4% of the amplified samples, respectively. Of these, only seven samples were authenticated and, in 71.4% of the cases, adulterated. We concluded that Bar-HRM has proven to be a fast alternative method to authenticate plants under the common name "Brazilian Ginseng".

Identification of metabolites in plasma related to different biological activities of Panax ginseng and American ginseng.

RATIONALE: Panax ginseng (PG) and American ginseng (AMG) are both medicinal plants of the Panax genus in the Acanthopanax family. Although PG and AMG have similar components of ginsenosides, there are many differences of their bioactivities. In this study, the biochemical mechanisms of different bioactivities of PG and AMG were explored by researching the differential metabolites in plasma after administration of each of PG and AMG. METHODS: In order to explore the material basis of differential bioactivities, two groups of mice were administrated orally with PG and AMG, and the method of metabolomics was used to identify the differential metabolites in plasma. Then network pharmacology was used based on the differential metabolites. Afterward, the metabolite-target-pathway network of PG and AMG was constructed; thus the pathways related to different bioactivities were analyzed. RESULTS: Through principal component analysis and orthogonal projections to latent structures discriminant analysis, there were 10 differential metabolites identified in the PG group and 8 differential metabolites identified in the AMG group. Based on network pharmacology, the differential metabolites were classified and related to differential bioactivities of PG and AMG. In the PG group, there were 6 metabolites related to aphrodisiac effect and exciting the nervous system, and 5 metabolites associated with raised blood pressure. In the AMG group, 5 metabolites were classified as having the effect of inhibiting the nervous system, and 6 metabolites were related to antihypertensive effect. CONCLUSIONS: This study explored the material basis of the differential biological activities between PG and AMG, which is significant for the research of PG and AMG use and to promote human health.

177 Saponins, Including 11 New Compounds in Wild Ginseng Tentatively Identified via HPLC-IT-TOF-MSn, and Differences among Wild Ginseng, Ginseng under Forest, and Cultivated Ginseng.

Wild ginseng (W-GS), ginseng under forest (F-GS, planted in mountain forest and growing in natural environment), and cultivated ginseng (C-GS) were compared via HPLC-DAD and HPLC-IT-TOF-MSn. A total of 199 saponins, including 16 potential new compounds, were tentatively identified from 100 mg W-GS (177 saponins in W-GS with 11 new compounds), F-GS (56 saponins with 1 new compound), and C-GS (60 saponins with 6 new compounds). There were 21 saponins detected from all the W-GS, F-GS, and C-GS. Fifty saponins were only detected from W-GS, including 23 saponins found in ginseng for the first time. Contents of ginsenosides Re (12.36-13.91 mg/g), Rh1 (7.46-7.65 mg/g), Rd (12.94-12.98 mg/g), and the total contents (50.52-55.51 mg/g) of Rg1, Re, Rf, Rb1, Rg2, Rh1, and Rd in W-GS were remarkably higher than those in F-GS (Re 1.22-3.50 mg/g, Rh1 0.15-1.49 mg/g, Rd 0.19-1.49 mg/g, total 5.69-18.74 mg/g), and C-GS (Re 0.30-3.45 mg/g, Rh1 0.05-3.42 mg/g, Rd 0.17-1.68 mg/g, total 2.99-19.55 mg/g). Contents of Re and Rf were significantly higher in F-GS than those in C-GS (p < 0.05). Using the contents of Re, Rf, or Rb1, approximately a half number of cultivated ginseng samples could be identified from ginseng under forest. Contents of Rg1, Re, Rg2, Rh1, as well as the total contents of the seven ginsenosides were highest in ginseng older than 15 years, middle-high in ginseng between 10 to 15 years old, and lowest in ginseng younger than 10 years. Contents of Rg1, Re, Rf, Rb1, Rg2, and the total of seven ginsenosides were significantly related to the growing ages of ginseng (p < 0.10). Similarities of chromatographic fingerprints to W-GS were significantly higher (p < 0.05) for F-GS (median: 0.824) than C-GS (median: 0.745). A characteristic peak pattern in fingerprint was also discovered for distinguishing three types of ginseng. Conclusively, wild ginseng was remarkably superior to ginseng under forest and cultivated ginseng, with ginseng under forest slightly closer to wild ginseng than cultivated ginseng. The differences among wild ginseng, ginseng under forest, and cultivated ginseng in saponin compositions and contents of ginsenosides were mainly attributed to their growing ages.

Non-targeted metabonomics to investigate the differences in the properties of ginseng and American ginseng based on rapid resolution liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

The basic properties of herbal medicines are cold, hot, warm, and cool. The differentiation of these properties is important for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Ginseng and American ginseng possess opposite properties of warm and cool, respectively. At present, the mechanisms and the influence of steaming leading to the differences in their properties are not clear and require further investigation. Therefore, nontargeted metabonomics based on liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry was applied to investigate the effects of ginseng, American ginseng, and their variants on the changes in endogenous metabolites in rat urine. A total of 19 potential biomarkers were screened out and identified, of which 17, 7, and 5, were respectively related to warm, cool, and both warm and cool properties with opposite effects. The metabolic pathways corresponded to fatty acids, lipids, glycolysis, and energy metabolisms. The warm and tonic effects of red ginseng are stronger than those of ginseng and consistent with the theory of traditional Chinese medicine. The red American ginseng has cool property; however, the degree of coolness is less than that of American ginseng. This study provides a reference methodology to understand the effects of processing and mechanisms associated with the differences in the properties of herbal medicines.

Evolutionary Contribution of Duplicated Genes to Genome Evolution in the Ginseng Species Complex.

Genes duplicated by whole genome duplication (WGD) and small-scale duplication (SSD) have played important roles in adaptive evolution of all flowering plants. However, it still remains underinvestigated how the distinct models of duplication events and their contending evolutionary patterns have shaped the genome and epigenomes of extant plant species. In this study, we investigated the contribution of the WGD- and SSD-derived duplicate genes to the genome evolution of one diploid and three closely related allotetraploid Panax species based on genome, methylome, and proteome data sets. Our genome-wide comparative analyses revealed that although the ginseng species complex was recently diverged, they have evolved distinct overall patterns of nucleotide variation, cytosine methylation, and protein-level expression. In particular, genetic and epigenetic asymmetries observed in the recent WGD-derived genes are largely consistent across the ginseng species complex. In addition, our results revealed that gene duplicates generated by ancient WGD and SSD mechanisms exhibited distinct evolutionary patterns. We found the ancient WGD-derived genes (i.e., ancient collinear gene) are genetically more conserved and hypomethylated at the cytosine sites. In contrast, some of the SSD-derived genes (i.e., dispersal duplicated gene) showed hypermethylation and high variance in nucleotide variation pattern. Functional enrichment analyses of the duplicated genes indicated that adaptation-related traits (i.e., photosynthesis) created during the distant ancient WGDs are further strengthened by both the more recent WGD and SSD. Together, our findings suggest that different types of duplicated genes may have played distinct but relaying evolutionary roles in the polyploidization and speciation processes in the ginseng species complex.

Dynamic evolution of Panax species.

BACKGROUND: Panax ginseng is one of the most valuable medicinal plants in Korea. However, deciphering its full genome sequence information for crop improvement has been hampered due to its complex genomic, genetic, and growth characteristics. Many efforts have been made in the past decade to overcome these limitations and understand the genome structure and the evolutionary history of P. ginseng. METHODS: This review aims to discuss the current status of genomic studies on P. ginseng and related species, and the experimental clues suggesting phylogenetic classification and evolutionary history of the genus Panax. CONCLUSION: The development of sequencing technologies made genome sequencing of the large P. ginseng genome possible, providing fundamental information to deciphering the evolutionary history of P. ginseng and related species. P. ginseng went through two rounds of whole genome duplication events after diverging from the closest family Apiaceae, which was unveiled from complete whole genome sequences. Further in-depth comparative genome analysis with other related species and genera will uncover the evolutionary history as well as important morphological and ecological characteristics of Panax species.

Identification of Specific Glycosyltransferases Involved in Flavonol Glucoside Biosynthesis in Ginseng Using Integrative Metabolite Profiles, DIA Proteomics, and Phylogenetic Analysis.

Ginseng contains a variety of flavonol glycosides that possess diverse biological activities; however, scant information of flavonoid glycosylation was reported in ginseng. We found that panasenoside and kaempferol 3-O-glucoside were commonly accumulated along with cultivation years in leaves. In order to explore the procedure of flavonol glycosylation in ginseng, 50 UDP-glycosyltransferases (UGTs) were screened out using differentiated data-independent acquisition (DIA) proteomics and phylogenetic analysis. UGT92A10 and UGT94Q4 were found contributing to the formation of kaempferol 3-O-glucoside. UGT73A18, UGT74T4, and UGT75W1 could catalyze galactosylation of kaempferol 3-O-glucoside. Ser278, Trp335, Gln338, and Val339 were found forming hydrogen bonds with UDP-galactose in UGT75W1 by docking. MeJA induced transcripts of UGT73A18 and UGT74T4 by over fourfold, consistent with the decrease of kaempferol 3-O-glucoside, which indicated that these genes may be related to resisting adversity stress in ginseng. These results highlight the significance of integrative metabolite profiles, proteomics, and phylogenetic analysis for exploring flavonol glycosylation in ginseng.

Application of Identification and Evaluation Techniques for Ethnobotanical Medicinal Plant of Genus Panax: A Review.

Genus Panax, as worldwide medicinal plants, has a medical history for thousands of years. Most of the entire genus are traditional ethnobotanical medicine in China, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, which have given rise to international attention and use. This paper reviewed more than 210 articles and related books on the research of Panax medicinal plants and their Chinese patent medicines published in the last 30 years. The purpose was to review and summarize the species classification, geographical distribution, and ethnic minorities medicinal records of the genus Panax, and further to review the analytical tools and data analysis methods for the authentication and quality assessment of Panax medicinal materials and Chinese patent medicines. Five main technologies applied in the identification and evaluation of Panax have been introduced and summarized. Chromatography was the most widely used one. Further research and development of molecular identification technology had the potential to become a mainstream identification technology. In addition, some novel, controversial, and worthy methods including electronic noses, electronic eyes, and DNA barcoding were also introduced. At the same time, more than 80% of the researches were carried out by a combination of chemometric pattern-recognition technologies and multi-analysis technologies. All the technologies and methods applied can provide strong support and guarantee for the identification and evaluation of genus Panax, and also conduce to excellent reference value for the development and in-depth research of new technologies in Panax.

Functional Characterization of BRASSINAZOLE-RESISTANT 1 in Panax Ginseng (PgBZR1) and Brassinosteroid Response during Storage Root Formation.

Brassinosteroids (BRs) play crucial roles in the physiology and development of plants. In the model plant Arabidopsis, BR signaling is initiated at the level of membrane receptors, BRASSINOSTEROIDS INSENSITIVE 1 (BRI1) and BRI1-ASSOCIATED RECEPTOR KINASE 1 (BAK1) complex, thus activating the transcription factors (TFs) BRASSINAZOLE RESISTANT 1/BRI1-EMS-SUPPRESSOR 1 (BZR1/BES1) to coordinate BR responsive genes. BRASSINOSTEROIDS INSENSITIVE 2 (BIN2), glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3) like-kinase, negatively regulates BZR1/BES1 transcriptional activity through phosphorylation-dependent cytosolic retention and shuttling. However, it is still unknown whether this mechanism is conserved in Panax ginseng C. A. Mayer, a member of the Araliaceae family, which is a shade-tolerant perennial root crop. Despite its pharmacological and agricultural importance, the role of BR signaling in the development of P. ginseng and characterization of BR signaling components are still elusive. In this study, by utilizing the Arabidopsisbri1 mutant, we found that ectopic expression of the gain of function form of PgBZR1 (Pgbzr1-1D) restores BR deficiency. In detail, ectopic expression of Pgbzr1-1D rescues dwarfism, defects of floral organ development, and hypocotyl elongation of bri1-5, implying the functional conservation of PgBZR1 in P. ginseng. Interestingly, brassinolide (BL) and BRs biosynthesis inhibitor treatment in two-year-old P. ginseng storage root interferes with and promotes, respectively, secondary growth in terms of xylem formation. Altogether, our results provide new insight into the functional conservation and potential diversification of BR signaling and response in P. ginseng.

Characteristics of Panax ginseng Cultivars in Korea and China.

Ginseng (Panax ginseng Meyer) is one of the most important medicinal herbs in Asia. Its pharmacological activity comes from ginsenosides, and its roots are produced commercially for traditional and Oriental medicine. Though 17 Panax species are available around the world, there was a need to develop cultivars adapted to different climatic conditions and resistant to various diseases while still producing high-quality, high-yield roots. Thus, 12 and 9 commercial P. ginseng cultivars have been registered in South Korea and China, respectively. Those varieties show superiority to local landraces. For example, Chunpoong is more highly resistant to rusty rot disease than the local Jakyungjong landrace and has a good root shape; it is highly cultivated to produce red ginseng. The Chinese cultivar Jilin Huangguo Renshen has higher ginsenoside content than its local landraces. This review provides information about P. ginseng cultivars and offers directions for future research, such as intra- and interspecific hybridization.

Resolving complicated relationships of the Panax bipinnatifidus complex in southwestern China by RAD-seq data.

The P. binpinnatifidus complex included most of the Panax species distributed in Sino-Himalaya regions except for P. pseudoginseng, P. stipuleanatus and P. notoginseng. However, the delimitation and identification of these taxa within the species complex are very difficult due to the existence of morphological intermediates, and their evolutionary relationships remain unresolved despite several studies have been carried out based on traditional DNA markers. The taxonomic uncertainty hinders the identification, conservation and exploration of these wild populations of Panax. To study this species complex, we employed ddRAD-seq data of these taxa from 18 different localities of southwestern China, using two RAD analysis pipelines, STACKS and pyRAD. Based on the results of phylogenetic analysis, the species complex was divided into four clades with high supports, which largely agreed with morphologically described species. Two clades, corresponding to P. vietnamensis and P. zingiberensis, respectively, were sister groups, indicating that these two species had a closer genetic relationship; the third clade was consisted of samples with bamboo-like rhizomes named as P. wangianus clade, and the fourth one with moniliform rhizomes was named as P. bipinnatifidus clade. The population genetic structure analysis and D-statistics test showed the localized admixture among these species, which indicated that introgression had occurred among the related lineages continuously distributed in southeastern Yunnan and adjacent regions.

Vascular effects of combined enriched Korean Red ginseng (Panax Ginseng) and American ginseng (Panax Quinquefolius) administration in individuals with hypertension and type 2 diabetes: A randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Type 2 diabetes is known to abrogate the vascular response. Combination of two commonly consumed ginseng species, American ginseng (AG) and a Korean Red ginseng (KRG), enriched with ginsensoide Rg3, was shown to concomitantly improve glucemic control and blood pressure. We evaluated the hypothesis that improvements in central hemodynamics, vascular function and stiffness markers are involved in observed benefits of co-administration. METHODS: In this randomized, placebo controlled, two-center trial, patients with type 2 diabetes and hypertension were assigned to either 2.25 g ginsenoside Rg3-enriched KRG&AG co-administration or a control 3 times daily for 12-weeks, treated by standard of care. The effects on central hemodynamics, pulse wave velocity (PWV) and endothelial function over the 12-week administration were analyzed. RESULTS: In intent-to-treat analysis of 80 individuals, a reduction in central systolic BP (-4.69 ±â€¯2.24 mmHg, p = 0.04) was observed with co-administration of Rg3-KRG + AG relative to control at 12-weeks, which was characterized by a decrease in end-systolic pressure (-6.60 ±â€¯2.5 mmHg, p = 0.01) and area under the systolic/diastolic BP curve (-132.80 ±â€¯65.1, p = 0.04, 220.90 ±â€¯91.1, p = 0.02, respectively). There was no significant change in reactive hyperemia index (0.09 ±â€¯0.11, p = 0.44), PWV (-0.40 ±â€¯0.28 %, p = 0.17), and other related pulse wave analysis components. CONCLUSION: Co-administration of complementary ginseng species improved central systolic BP and components of pulse waveform without a direct effect on endothelial function, when added to background pharmacotherapy in individuals with diabetes. These data support potential utility of ginseng for modest blood pressure benefit to broaden its role in diabetes management.

Structural-fingerprinting of polysaccharides to discern Panax species by means of gas-liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry.

In this paper, a sequential gas-liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry route was proposed for characterization of polysaccharides in Panax ginseng (PG), P. notoginseng (PN), and P. quinquefolius (PQ). Due to the reflection of stepped structure parameters, the resulting integrative profiles were tentatively defined as structural-fingerprinting of polysaccharides (SFP) with monosaccharide compositional fingerprinting (MCF), Smith degradation and non-degradation fingerprinting (SDF and SNF), and oligosaccharide compositional fingerprinting (OCF). The MCF, OCF and SDF did not allow for visual discrimination of the three species due to the high interspecific similarity of PG and PQ, whereas SNF could intuitively distinguish PG, PN, and PQ by the presence or absence of Rha and the peak area ratio of Glc/Gal. Similarity analysis, heatmap analysis and principal component analysis were further performed to discern three Panax species based on SNF data sets. The linear →4)-Hexp-(1 â†’ structures were clearly identified as the common structural backbones in side chains or smooth regions of the main chain in PPG, PPN, and PPQ using HILIC-UHPLC-ESI--MS/MS for characterization of partial acid hydrolyzates. The experimental results displayed that the established SFP approach possesses high comprehensibility as well as satisfactory generalization capability for analysis of plant polysaccharides.

Ginseng Extract Ameliorates the Negative Physiological Effects of Heat Stress by Supporting Heat Shock Response and Improving Intestinal Barrier Integrity: Evidence from Studies with Heat-Stressed Caco-2 Cells, C. elegans and Growing Broilers.

Climatic changes and heat stress have become a great challenge in the livestock industry, negatively affecting, in particular, poultry feed intake and intestinal barrier malfunction. Recently, phytogenic feed additives were applied to reduce heat stress effects on animal farming. Here, we investigated the effects of ginseng extract using various in vitro and in vivo experiments. Quantitative real-time PCR, transepithelial electrical resistance measurements and survival assays under heat stress conditions were carried out in various model systems, including Caco-2 cells, Caenorhabditis elegans and jejunum samples of broilers. Under heat stress conditions, ginseng treatment lowered the expression of HSPA1A (Caco-2) and the heat shock protein genes hsp-1 and hsp-16.2 (both in C. elegans), while all three of the tested genes encoding tight junction proteins, CLDN3, OCLN and CLDN1 (Caco-2), were upregulated. In addition, we observed prolonged survival under heat stress in Caenorhabditis elegans, and a better performance of growing ginseng-fed broilers by the increased gene expression of selected heat shock and tight junction proteins. The presence of ginseng extract resulted in a reduced decrease in transepithelial resistance under heat shock conditions. Finally, LC-MS analysis was performed to quantitate the most prominent ginsenosides in the extract used for this study, being Re, Rg1, Rc, Rb2 and Rd. In conclusion, ginseng extract was found to be a suitable feed additive in animal nutrition to reduce the negative physiological effects caused by heat stress.

A novel neutral loss/product ion scan-incorporated integral approach for the untargeted characterization and comparison of the carboxyl-free ginsenosides from Panax ginseng, Panax quinquefolius, and Panax notoginseng.

Differentiated composition in precursor ions for different subclasses of ginsenosides in the negative electrospray-ionization mode has been reported, which lays a foundation for the sorted and untargeted identification of ginsenosides. Carboxyl-free ginsenosides simultaneously from Panax ginseng, P. quinquefolius, and P. notoginseng, were comprehensively characterized and statistically compared. A neutral loss/product ion scan (NL-PIS) incorporated untargeted profiling approach, coupled to ultra-high performance liquid chromatography, was developed on a linear ion-trap/Orbitrap mass spectrometer for characterizing carboxyl-free ginsenosides. It incorporated in-source fragmentation (ISF) full scan-MS1, mass tag-MS2, and product ion scan-MS3. Sixty batches of ginseng samples were analyzed by metabolomics workflows for the discovery of ginsenoside markers. Using formic acid (FA) as the additive, carboxyl-free ginsenosides (protopanaxadiol-type, protopanaxatriol-type, and octillol-type) gave predominant FA-adducts, while rich deprotonated molecules were observed for carboxyl-containing ginsenosides (oleanolic acid-type and malonylated) when source-induced dissociation (SID) was set at 0 V. Based on the NL transition [M+FA‒H]- > [M-H]- and the characteristic sapogenin product ions, a NL-PIS approach was established. It took advantage of the efficient full-information acquisition of ISF-MS1 (SID: 50 V), the high specificity of mass tag (NL: 46.0055 Da)-induced MS2 fragmentation, and the substructure fragmentation of product ion scan-MS3. We could characterize 216 carboxyl-free ginsenosides, and 21 thereof were potentially diagnostic for the species differentiation. Conclusively, sorted and untargeted characterization of the carboxyl-free ginsenosides was achieved by the established NL-PIS approach. In contrast to the conventional NL or PIS-based survey scan strategies, the high-accuracy MSn data obtained can enable more reliable identification of ginsenosides.

A chemometric modeling-free near infrared barcode strategy for smart authentication and geographical origin discrimination of Chinese ginseng.

With the growing interest in alternative medicine, handy identification and differentiation of herbal medicines are becoming increasingly important. Here we report a chemometric modeling-free near infrared (NIR) barcode strategy for the smart identification and geographical origin discrimination of Chinese ginseng. The novel strategy demands the transformation of Chinese ginseng (standard and sample) NIR spectra into a barcode representation through assigning zero intensity to every NIR peak except the peaks having intensities greater than average peak intensity. Meanwhile, for Chinese ginseng standard NIR barcode, barcoding condition such as padding size was carefully optimized. It has been demonstrated that the padding size for each bar in the barcode is 8 cm-1. By comparing the percentage of nonzero overlap between Chinese ginseng standard barcode and sample barcodes, eight batches of samples (including Chinese ginseng, American ginseng and counterfeit) were successfully identified with 100% accuracy, respectively. Interestingly, the discrimination of the origin of ginsengs from three provinces (Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang) of Northeastern China was achieved utilizing NIR barcode method. Two characteristic bars at 7750 and 8250 cm-1 were inspected in the ginseng sample from Jilin province, two specific bars at 6780 and 7015 cm-1 were displayed in the ginseng sample from Liaoning province and three distinct bars at 6560, 6910 and 7995 cm-1 were monitored in the ginseng sample from Heilongjiang province. The results indicate that the proposed method will be greatly expanded and applied as an inspecting platform for the on-site analysis and valid identification of Chinese ginseng in herbal markets by a handheld spectrometer or barcode scanner.

Analysis of Ginsenoside Content (Panax ginseng) from Different Regions.

Recently Panax ginseng has been grown as a secondary crop under a pine tree canopy in New Zealand (NZ). The aim of the study is to compare the average content of ginsenosides from NZ-grown ginseng and its original native locations (China and Korea) grown ginseng. Ten batches of NZ-grown ginseng were extracted using 70% methanol and analyzed using LC-MS/MS. The average content of ginsenosides from China and Korea grown ginseng were obtained by collecting data from 30 and 17 publications featuring China and Korea grown ginseng, respectively. The average content of total ginsenosides in NZ-grown ginseng was 40.06 ± 3.21 mg/g (n = 14), which showed significantly (p < 0.05) higher concentration than that of China grown ginseng (16.48 ± 1.24 mg/g, n = 113) and Korea grown ginseng (21.05 ± 1.57 mg/g, n = 106). For the individual ginsenosides, except for the ginsenosides Rb2, Rc, and Rd, ginsenosides Rb1, Re, Rf, and Rg1 from NZ-grown ginseng were 2.22, 2.91, 1.65, and 1.27 times higher than that of ginseng grown in China, respectively. Ginsenosides Re and Rg1 in NZ-grown ginseng were also 2.14 and 1.63 times higher than ginseng grown in Korea. From the accumulation of ginsenosides, New Zealand volcanic pumice soil may be more suitable for ginseng growth than its place of origin.

Review: Molecular techniques to assess genetic variation within and between Panax ginseng and Panax quinquefolius.

A variety of methods have been used to examine genetic differences in P. ginseng and P. quinquefolius. They have shown genetic differences within populations of P. ginseng (within and between elite cultivars, landraces and wild accessions), within populations of P. quinquefolius (within and between wild and cultivated accessions) and between P. ginseng and P. quinquefolius as well as other Panax species. Some examples of their applications have been to show that some elite cultivars are not uniform, there are possible founder effects in certain populations, there has been the spread of cultivated types into wild populations, relative diversity differs between different populations and identification of the source and purity of commercial samples. More work in the use of molecular markers for ginseng are needed, however, particularly the use of Next Generation Sequencing. Potential applications are the use of sequence analysis for genetic selection, breeding to develop new cultivars and providing traceability from field to consumer. Research on molecular markers in ginseng has lagged compared to other crops probably because of less of an emphasis on breeding for cultivar development and relatively small areas of production. The many potential benefits for ginseng production have yet to be realized.

Testing and using complete plastomes and ribosomal DNA sequences as the next generation DNA barcodes in Panax (Araliaceae).

Complete plastid genome (plastome) sequences and nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA) regions have been proposed as candidates for the next generation of DNA barcodes for plant species discrimination. However, the efficacy of this approach still lacks comprehensive evaluation. We carried out a case study in the economically important but phylogenetically and taxonomically difficult genus Panax (Araliaceae). We generated a large data set of plastomes and nrDNA sequences from multiple accessions per species. Our data improved the phylogenetic resolution and levels of species discrimination in Panax, compared to any previous studies using standard DNA barcodes. This provides new insights into the speciation, lineage diversification and biogeography of the genus. However, both plastome and nrDNA failed to completely resolve the phylogenetic relationships in the Panax bipinnatifidus species complex, and only half of the species within it were recovered as monophyletic units. The results suggest that complete plastome and ribosomal DNA sequences can substantially increase species discriminatory power in plants, but they are not powerful enough to fully resolve phylogenetic relationships and discriminate all species, particularly in evolutionarily young and complex plant groups. To gain further resolving power for closely related species, the addition of substantial numbers of nuclear markers is likely to be required.

Novel Foveavirus (the family Betaflexiviridae) species identified in ginseng (Panax ginseng).

Ginseng (Panax ginseng) is a valuable herb that is widely cultivated in Korea, China, and Japan because it contains a variety of pharmacologically active substances with a wide range of positive effects on human health. Identification and prevention of disease-causing viral pathogens of ginseng is important for improving the yield and quality of ginseng-derived bioactive molecules. In this study, the genome sequence of the virus Panax ginseng flexivirus 1 (PgFV1) was identified from a ginseng root transcriptome data set. Sequence comparison and phylogenetic analysis showed that PgFV1 is a novel plant RNA virus species of the genus Foveavirus (the family Betaflexiviridae). Foveaviruses have flexuous and filamentous virions with a single-stranded positive-sense mono-segmented RNA genome. Its infection causes diseases with mosaic and ringspot symptoms in the stems and leaves. The PgFV1 genome encodes for 5 open reading frames: a replicase polyprotein for viral genome replication, 3 triple gene block proteins for viral cell-to-cell movement, and coat protein. Phylogenetic trees inferred from replicase polyprotein or coat protein sequences showed that PgFV1 is most closely related to grapevine virus T. PgFV1 is the first foveavirus identified to be associated with ginseng. Given the potential pathogenic features of previously known foveaviruses and importance of ginseng in the health industry, the PgFV1 genome sequence may be highly useful for studying ginseng foveaviruses. Keywords: ginseng; Panax ginseng flexivirus 1; Foveavirus; Betaflexiviridae.