[CHA]notoginseng

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1: Hong DY, Lau AJ, Yeo CL, Liu XK, Yang CR, Koh HL, Hong Y

 

Genetic Diversity and Variation of Saponin Contents in Panax notoginseng

Roots from a Single Farm.

J Agric Food Chem 2005 Nov 2;53(22):8460-7.

Radix notoginseng, the root of Panax notoginseng (Burk.) F. H. Chen, has

been widely used in traditional Chinese medicine. Its main components, saponins,

have been reported to have many pharmacological activities. To test the general

assumption that herbs of a single species planted and harvested from a single

location are uniform in chemical and genetic makeup, chemical analysis and DNA

fingerprinting were carried out. High-performance TLC together with HPLC

analysis were used to analyze 17 randomly sampled 3-year-old roots from a single

farm for the presence of six saponins. Five roots showed distinct chemical

profiles with changed ratios of ginsenosides Rd/Rg1, Re/Rg1, or Rb1/Rg1. The

same samples, together with some 1- and 2-year-old samples, were also subjected

to fluorescent amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis, and their

internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS 2) regions were sequenced. Fluorescent AFLP

analysis was found to be much more polymorphic than the ITS 2 sequence and

showed clear evidence of genetic diversity within the tested population. In

conclusion, genetic diversity and variation of saponin contents between

individual P. notoginseng roots have been detected. We suggest that genetic

diversity affects the contents of the six saponins. The saponin contents

variation and genetic diversity were also found among P. notoginseng root

samples collected from China and Singapore markets. Since variable saponin

contents may affect therapeutic efficacy, combining the use of genetic profiling

with chemical profiling will help ensure greater uniformity in the quality of P.

notoginseng roots. The genetic and chemical diversity within a population also

provides the opportunity for breeding new cultivars with more desirable chemical

constituents.

 

 

 

 

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