A novel precision plot seeder for medicinal and aromatic plants was designed and built. Based on the system design-oriented development as well as the implemented state-of-the-art hardware and software solutions, it was possible to identify the problems in the early phase of the design process, to create multiple design variants, to overcome the lack of cross-disciplinary knowledge and consequently achieve savings in associated labour and material costs. The electrification should provide more accurate seed placement and continuous regulation of seed rates and row length for each row, as well as the option to generate detailed documentation about the sowing process. KeywordsPrecision plot seeder, experimental practice, digital prototyping, system based designs IntroductionThe Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) projected that if current patterns in food consumption will persist, 60 percent more food will need to be produced to meet the needs of the growing earth population that is expected to top the nine billion mark in 2050. Changes towards more sustainable production are required including investments in research, development and dissemination of the technologies and information in order to improve efficiency and reduce waste and pollution. The increase of the resource use efficiency, cutting the use of fossil fuels and reducing direct environmental degradation are some of the important components which can improve sustainable development in the agricultural sector [1]. Further development of methods and techniques in the field of experimental practice can positively affect the process of achieving these requirements.The sowing equipment used in experimental practice require high degree of modularity to use it for as many crop species as possible and to be able to assess as many issues as possible within the experimental research with respect to the optimisation of the seeding process. A prerequisite is an even distribution of the defined amount of seeds over the predetermined length of a trial plot. Depending on the explicit research question, the distances between the rows, which number can vary, need to be exactly retained. Above all an accurate and steady sowing depth, an important parameter for the optimum germination [2, 3], needs to be maintained for each row on the entire plot length and ideally should be carried out automatically. The mechanisation within the experimental praxis started in second half of the twentieth century and the backgrounds and requirements for sowing equipment have been listed and evaluated by Kemp [4], Cameron et al. [5] and Hergert [6]. In that time, considerable savings in time and labour were anticipated from the newly developed machinery in regarding the manual sowing.Medicinal and aromatic crops belong to high value specialty crops and are often established on fields by sowing. The species vary in grain size, thousand seed weight, required seed rates, shape and surface textures, strength of the bran and composition of the grain sizes. The...

Application of a sensitive UHPLC−MS/MS MRM method enabled the simultaneous quantitation of 23 sweet-, licorice-, and bitter-tasting saponins in Glycyrrhiza glabra L., Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch., different licorice plants and root compartments, processed licorice, as well as different Glycyrrhiza spp. The combination of quantitative data with sweet, licorice, and bitter taste thresholds led to the determination of dose-over-threshold factors to elucidate the sweet, licorice, and bitter impact of the individual saponins with and without mycorrhiza symbiosis to evaluate the licorice root quality. Aside from glycyrrhizin (1), which is the predominant sweet-and licorice-tasting saponin in all licorice samples, 20 out of 22 quantitated saponins contributed to the taste profile of licorice roots. Next to sweet-/licorice-tasting glycyrrhizin (1), 24-hydroxy-glycyrrhizin (9), 30-hydroxy-glycyrrhizin ( 11), and 11-deoxo-24-hydroxy-glycyrrhizin ( 14) as well as licorice tasting saponins 20α-galacturonic acid glycyrrhizin (17), 24-hydroxy-20α-glycyrrhizin ( 21), and 11-deoxo-glycyrrhizin (12) were determined as key contributors to licorice root's unique taste profile. A quantitative comparison of 23 saponins as well as 28 polyphenols between licorice roots inoculated with arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi and controls showed that important taste-mediating saponins were increased in mycorrhizal roots, and these alterations depended on the growth substrate and the level of phosphate fertilization.

No abstract