Studies On The Development Of Vegetative Organs And Their Relationship With The Accumulation Of Effectual Components In Sophora Alopecuroides L.

Sophora alopecuroides L.,which belongs to Sophora Linn., Leguminosae,is a native perennial herbaceous plant in the aridity and semiarid regions of Asian. Sophora alopecuroides L. is an important medicinal plant, whose biological activity components are mainly alkaloids and flavonoids. In this study, the development and structure of root, rhizome, stem and leaf, and the dynamic changes of total alkaloids and total flavone contents in them during their development were systematically investigated by using anatomy, histochemistry and phytochemistry methods.The primary growths of the root, stem, rhizome and leaf are similar to the general developmental pattern of the dicotyledonous plants. The promeristem consisted of three groups of primitive cells,which has the characteristic of typical meristem cell. Primary meristems were composed of primordial epidermises, periblems and pleromes. Primary structure consisted of epidermis, cortex and stele, and the primary xylem was diarch. Secondary growth relied on the activities of vascular cambium and cork cadmium, which formed from pericyclic cells that resumed their dividing capabilities. During its secondary growth, the part of vascular cambium derived from pericycle forms parenchyma cells only by periclinal divisions, so the secondary vascular tissue is divided into two bundles. The secondary structure was composed of periderm, circular pericycle parenchyma, secondary vascular system and primary xylem.Promeristem of stem was composed of tunica cells and corpus cells, which formed primary meristem of stem. Primary meristems were composed of primordial epidermises, ground meristem and procambium. The primary meristem differentiated into primary structure consisting of epidermis, vascular system, cortex, pith and pith ray. During the secondary growth, the fascicular cambium which differentiated into secondary xylem and secondary phloem, and the interfascicular cambium which differentiated into wide ray of parenchyma tissue made up of circular cambium. And the secondary structure was composed of epidermis, cortex, phloem fibre, secondary vascular system, primary xylem, and pith.The development of rhizome was similar with the stem. The differences in structure between stem and rhizome were: firstly, the pith ray in rhizome was as much as 2 times wilder than the one in stem; secondly, in rhizome, several phloem fibre bundles were distributed in the secondary vascular tissues; thirdly, in rhizome, the second layer of cortex cell near to epidermis differentiated into original cork cambium, but in the stem, the epidermis played the role of protection in all its lives because of scarcity of the periderm.The leaf was typical bifacial leaf, palisade existed between two sides of epidermis.The blade insisted of epidermis, mesophyll and vein. Mesophyll which composed of palisade tissue and spongy tissue, were differentiated as other dicotyledonous plants.In the stem, rhizome and main vein of the leaf, the fiber bundles around the primary phloem were derived from procambium cells exterior to the protophloem.The results of histochemistry in the vegetative organs showed that the alkaloid was mainly distributed in the parenchyma cells of pericycle and rays in the root; the cortex, parenchyma cells of vascular and pith rays in the stem and rhizome, and in the palisade tissue cells in the leaf. As a result, the alkaloid was mainly distributed in the parenchyma cells. It could be suggested that the higher the ratio of parts outsides the vascular cambium to parts insides the vascular cambium was, the more the alkaloid it contained. Therefore, this ratio could be used as an anatomical criterion to estimate the alkaloid content.The content of total alkaloids in the frond of Sophora alopecuroides L. changed with months in a growth period. It showed a changing trend from low to high, then to low, the lowest on April and highest on July. Total alkaloids existed in every vegetative organ, which changed as the same as the frond of Sophora alopecuroides L., at the same time, it content of under ground part was higher than that of upground part. Oxymatrine in the frond and root was similar as total alkaloids, and the content in frond of Sophora alopecuroides L. was higher than that in root. According to the study, it could be suggested that collecting the frond and root on July or August would improve the use efficiency of total alkaloids and oxymatrine.The total flavonoids content in frond of Sophora alopecuroides L. was highest on June and lowest on December. Total flavonoids existed in each vegetative organ of Sophora alopecuroides L. The content of total flavonoids in root and rhizome changed from low to high, then to low, which is the highest on June. But in stem and leaf, the content of total flavonoids changed like "V", and the lowest on July. Therefore, it was proposed that we could collect their fronds before blossom period on June, and extracted the flavonoid in order to develop and utilize this medicinal plants comprehensively.