A Study On The Production Status And Optimized Agronomic Practices Of Atractylodes Macrocephala Koidz. In Zhejiang

Rhizoma atractylodis macrocephalae is a sort of famous Chinese traditional medicine with the highest usage frequency, and is one of"Zhe Ba-wei"(8 kinds of the most excellent traditional medicine in Zhejiang province). It is from the rhizome of Atractylodes macrocephala Koidz., a plant of Cryxanthemum family. In this paper, the production status and superior plant charactors in the main production areas of A. macrocephala in Zhejiang province was investigated, the charactors of growth and development, the correlationship between above- and under-ground organs, the content of atractylenolides in the rhizoma of A. macrocephala, the suitable techniques of sexual and asexual reproduction and soil-borne disease control was studied. The main results were as follows.1. The investigation on the present situation of A. macrocephala production in Tiantai Shiliang and Pan'an, Zhejiang Province showed that the main reasons of quality decrease of A. macrocephala were mixed germplasm, non-standard planting practices, and abuse of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. On the basis of planting experiences in standard production base, the suitable practices for high yield was proposed. According to leaf shape, crown shape, stem numbers per plant and rhizoma type of observed A. macrocephala plants, A. macrocephala was classified as different types, and the charaters of superior plants was preliminarily quantified. The standard of superior plant selection of A. macrocephala was such plants with rhizoma of typical Drumstick /Frog type, leaves of lotus-leaf shape, dense-narrow planttype, uni-culm thick-strong stem, and with high yield for single plant and community and disease resistance. This classification provided qualified and quantified standard for superior plant selection.2. The dynamics of growth and development parameters of cultivating annual and biennial A. macrocephala community was studied. The results showed that, the correlation existed between the growth and development parameters each other. May or June was the transition period from vegetative to reproductive growth for biennial A. Macrocephala, and suitable agronomic practice was beneficial to good morphogenesis of biennial A. macrocephala plants, and to high yield of the rhizoma. Defference existed the changing dynamics of chlorophyll content between annual and biennial A. macrocephala during the whole growing period. The chlorophyll content of annual A. macrocephala were steadily increasing with the growing process, but those of biennials showed double-peak curves and were positively correlated to rhizoma dry weight. According to the morphological observation for above- and under-ground organs, the dynamics of above- and under-ground dry weight, root-shoot ratio and rhizoma drying rate of A. macrocephala was clarified. The correlation between specific leaf weight (SLW) and rhizoma dry weight of A. Macrocephala was also demonstrated, which provided the base for foreseeing the rhizome yield of A. macrocephala by the determination of SLW.3. The dynamics of atractylenolidesⅠ,ⅡandⅢcontents and accumulation processes during the whole growing period was determinated by HPLC techniques. And it was showed that the HPLC technique to determinate atractylenolides was easily operated and accurate. The results showed that the highest contents of atractylenolidesⅠ,ⅡandⅢwas at late May to early June when was the budding stage of flowers of A. Macrocephala. It was firstly proposed according to the results, that the optimum harvest time should be before disbuttoning during the last ten-day of May if the atractylenolides was the objetive medicinal constituents. The contents of atractylenolidesⅠ,ⅡandⅢwas different in the products of rhizoma atractylodis macrocephalae from different habitats of Zhejiang Province, with the highest contents of atractylenolides existed in the products from Tiantai district, from where the models of cultivar selection and cultivation should be referenced by other A. Macrocephala habitats. The resulted also demonstrated that the agronomic practices such as cultivar selection and cultivation should be furthur standardized for the purpose of increasing yield and quality of A. Macrocephala.4. The suitable techniques for superior cultivar selection was studied from two ways of sexual and asexual reproduction by using A. Macrocephala plants with such charaters as dwarf plants, deep green leaves with the shape of yams and strong disease resistance, which was selected during cultivation research for many years. The study on the effect of the varieties, concentrations, treatment times of hormones and culture substrate ratios with four independent experiments by orthogonal design showed that, the soft-wood cuttings of A. macrocephala soaked with NAA, IBA, NAA+IBA and Guo guang sheng gen (a commercial plant regulator containing NAA) solutions all rooted and survived normally. On the basis of the results above, the optimum rooting conditions for soft-wood cutting of A. macrocephala was selected by using expression analysis. Another field experiment incluing two factors, planting density and flower buds per plant, and with 1000 grain weight, plump seed ratio, and germination rate of A. macrocephala seeds as objective parameters, showed shat, the optimum seed quality was obtained at planting spacing 40×40 cm, and five flower buds leaved per plant. This results provide important basis for GAP of A. macrocephala.5. Aiming at solve the problem of serious disease and high shoot death rate in he production of A. macrocephala in Zhejiang Province, two experiments on the effects of different kind, concentration and treating time by fungicides on shoot death rate, disease control efficiency, seed emergence rate and full emergence date was conducted, and the techniques for fungicide application was optimized as, soaking the transplanting shoots 24 h with Duoyangqing No. 2 (a commercial fungicide) solution with the concentration 2000 times, or irrigate root zone with Kangdileide (another commercial fungicide) solution with the concentration 1000 times.The residues of Carbendazim, a fungicide with high application frequency in A. Macrocephala production, in rhizoma of A. Macrocephala of different harvesting time was also determinated by HPLC techniques. According to the results, the recommendations of harvest time was proposted that, the harvest time should not be less than 40 days after Carbendazim application.