Aim:  All foods in Traditional Chinese Medicine are categorised into ‘the four natures’: cold, cool, warm and hot. The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between the nutrient content of these foods and their cold‐hot nature category. Methods:  For the purposes of this study, 284 foods were selected and grouped by their cold‐hot nature category. Twenty‐six nutrient content values for each food were derived from the China Food Composition database 2002. Results:  Ten nutrients were found to be associated with the cold‐hot nature category of foods. In the multiple logistic regression analysis, five nutrients correlated with the cold‐hot natures of foods. Large amounts of fat, carbohydrate and selenium were significantly associated with the hot nature of foods (P < 0.01) while the amount of iron and copper were significantly associated with the cold nature of foods (P < 0.05). Conclusion:  The results suggest that the nutrient contents of foods may be one of distinguishing factors for the categorisation of cold‐hot nature of foods.

Cassava stems contain up to 40% starch (by dry mass) and are currently discarded as agricultural waste. The current study aims to understand the physicochemical traits of cassava stem and root starches for investigating trends in industrial cassava applications. In total, 11 traits of both cassava stem and root starches of 15 genotypes are investigated. All the examined traits of cassava root and stem starches vary by genotype. The amylose contents of root and stem starches are in the range of 19.0-33.0% and 18.44-34.51%, respectively. The resistant starch of root and stem starches are in the range of 1.72-17.72% and 4.42-13.37%, respectively. Only the starch content, solubility, and swelling power of root starches are significantly higher than those of stem starches. The root starch gel is more stable than the stem starch gel after the fourth and fifth freeze-thaw cycles. Furthermore, principal component analysis calculated based on starch and amylose contents, degree of swelling, digestibility, and freeze-thaw stability demonstrates that genotypes GW46, GW88, S1, E26, and GC49 gain higher scores than control varieties South China 12 and South China 205, which are the most favorable ones by farmers in China because of good root yields.

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is mainly cultivated in marginal land in the south of China where seasonal drought stress occurs frequently and the soil becomes more compact year by year. The study aimed to explore the effect of Fenlong tillage (FLT) combined with nitrogen applications on cassava rhizosphere soil particle composition and fungal community diversity. Conventional tillage (CT) was set as the control. The results indicated that the contents of clay and silt of the cassava rhizosphere soil were influenced by the tillage method, nitrogen (N), and their interaction. There was no difference in the richness and diversity of rhizosphere soil fungal communities among all treatments in 2019, while the richness of FLT was lower than that of CT in 2020. FLT caused a stronger influence on the community structure of rhizosphere fungi than N applications in the first year. The differences in the community structure of all treatments were reduced by continuous cropping of cassava in the second year. The top 10 dominant rhizosphere fungi at the class level of cassava found in 2019 and 2020 were Sordariomycetes, Dothideomycetes, Eurotiomycetes, Agaricomycetes, Intramacronucleata, norank_p__Mucoromycota, unclassified_p__Ascomycota, unclassified_k__Fungi, Pezizomycetes, and Glomeromycetes, which had an important relationship with soil pH, activity of urease, available nitrogen, available phosphorus, organic matter, and clay. These results indicated that FLT created a better soil environment for cassava growth than CT, thus promoting the formation of more stable rhizosphere fungal community structures.