Morphological and Ginsenoside Differences among North American Ginseng Leaves

Abstract

Leaf characteristics of mature 2, 3 and 4-year-old North American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius L.) leaves on fruiting and non-fruiting (NF) plants were studied. Leaflets of the 2-year-old plants had the lowest fresh and dry weight, area, volume and internal gas volume. Inflorescence removal in 3-year-old plants did not affect leaf characteristics or ginsenoside concentration but in 4-yearold plants it increased leaf fresh (38.6%) and dry (43.9%) weight, leaf area (29.1%), specific leaf mass (11.4%), leaf volume (43.1%), and leaf thickness (12.1%), and decreased leaf water content (6.2%). Cultivated ginseng, although an understorey plant, had the specific leaf mass, 35.6 g m-2 (range, 36 to 39 g m-2) and a chlorophyll a/b ratio of 2.40 to 2.61, both suggesting the ability to perform like a sunny habitat plant. Also, specific leaf mass of 35.6 g m-2 is similar to that reported for perennial plants, 36.8 g m-2, rather than that for annuals, 30.9 g m-2.

Phosphorus fertilization and inflorescence removal in American ginseng culture

“…The inflorescence removal in the 2nd and 3rd year (and no removal in the last one) was connected with significant, on average, a 31% higher root yield and 16.5% leaf and stem yield. That was in agreement with the studies by Proctor et al, (1999), Fiebig (1999), and Proctor et al, (2011), although the root-weight increases in our experiments were slightly higher. When inflorescence removal treatment was performed only in the second year of cultivation, the yields of the aerial parts (leaf and stem) and roots were higher by 10% (Table 1).…”

“…Inflorescence removal of in the second and third growing periods resulted in an increase in the total ginsenosides content, on average, by 8.36 mg g −1 , while the annual inflorescence removal treatment was associated with a 10.75 mg g −1 increase in accumulation of ginsenosides. Different results were obtained by Proctor et al, (2011), who stated that inflorescence removal by hand or with the use of the ethephon spray did not influence the total ginsenoside concentration in either roots or leaves.…”

Discrimination of cultivation ages and cultivars of ginseng leaves using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy combined with multivariate analysis

“…Over 30 ginsenosides have been isolated from the roots, leaves, stems, flower buds, and berries [41] . However, ginsenoside content varies depending on the plant part and age [41,42] . Ginseng is a deciduous herbaceous plant that perennially loses its leaves in late fall, with the remaining roots persisting through winter.…”

“…Chemical compositions of ginseng can be altered depending on various environmental and biological factors. Ginsenoside contents vary depending on the plant part and age of ginseng [41,42] . The content of polyacetylenes decreases with increasing root size [52] .…”

Lesser-known ethnic leafy vegetables Talinum paniculatum grown at tropical ecosystem: Morphological traits and non-destructive estimation of total leaf area per branch

“…Sunday and Chukwuka (2016) recommended a weekly inflorescence removal in order to obtain an optimum yield of T. triangulare. Proctor et al (2011) reported that inflorescence removal increased 26% of root yield and 38.6 % of leaf fresh weight in American ginseng. Plants with a large number of leaves, such as T. paniculatum, cause measurement of canopy area based on image analysis becomes meaningless due to high degree of overlapping amongst existing leaves, i.e., plants with a similar value of canopy area may have significantly different in total leaf area.…”