Studies On Idioplasm Resource Of Chinese Troditional Medicine Astragalus And On Effects Of Environmental Factors On Quality

Astragalus is a Chinese traditional medicine used as invigorant for diuresis, expelling pus, healing tumefactions etc. Quality has great difference among Astagalus medical materials from different areas because of different soil, climate and planting methods. This leads to instable quality of medicines made from Astragalus. Main factors that influence quality of Astragalus are idioplasm and environment. So we need to study them to serve for producing high quality medical materials of Astragalus.Studies were done surrounding Astragalus idioplasm and effectiveness to Astragalus quality by environmental factors of light intensity and soil characters.We analysed 19 kinds of Astragalus materials introduced from different areas by clustering and classified them through studying their biological characters of plant form, florescence etc. and electrophoresis of amylase isoenzyme, peroxidase isoenzyme and soluble proteins. The conclusion was that there were great differences between Astragalus membranaceus var. mongholicus and Astragalus membranaceus. Astragalus membranaceus var. mongholicus should be considered as an individual species. A form that existed in colonies of Astragalus membranaceus was different from those depicted in Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae by later florescence and hairy upper leaflet surface. So we classified Astragalus three breed families - Astragalus mongholicus family, early florescence Astragalus membranaceus and later florescence Astragalus membranaceus.The characters of three breed families were studied, including resistance to powdery mildew, root rot and freezing harm and content of effective components etc. We found that Astragalus mongholicus was a good idioplasm with high resistance to powdery mildew. Early florescence Astragalus membranaceus infected powdery mildew badly. Later florescence Astragalus membranaceus had a little resistance to powdery mildew. All Astagalus materials did not show obvious resistance to root rot. Later florescence Astragalus membranaceus had a little resistance to root rot. But the breed Xunyi Wild Astragalus membranaceus (belonging to early florescence Astragalus membranaceus) and Astragalus mongholicus showed little. Stems and leaves of early florescence Astragalus membranaceus showed better resistance to freezing harm than that of later florescence Astragalus membranaceus. Xunyi Wild Astragalus membranaceus was a good idioplasm with high resistance to freezing harm. The later florescence Astragalus membranaceus had higher total astragaloside. Total astragaloside in roots of Astragalus membranaceus increased after frosting and it was higher after living through the winter than before the winter. So Astragalus used for their astragaloside should be harvested after living through the winter. There were higher polysaccharide breeds in all three breeds families. Among those Xunyi Wild Astragalus membranaceus was a good highest polysaccharide content idioplasm. Polysaccharide content in all breed families reached its peek at first frosting time. And it came down after that. So Astragalus used for their polysaccharide should be harvested around first frosting time before winter.