Verification of the Field Productivity of Rehmannia glutinosa (Gaertn.) DC. Developed Through Optimized In Vitro Culture Method

Abstract

Rehmannia glutinosa (Gaertn.) DC is a perennial plant belonging to the family Scropulariidae. The root of R. glutinosa is used in oriental medicine and mainly grown using rootstock rather than seed cultivation, which gives rise to several problems including root rot, and results in a low productivity and poor quality. To solve the challenges involved in R. glutinosa seed cultivation, our team previously used the formative features and genetic analysis of R. glutinosa to determine the optimal in vitro tissue culture conditions for producing sterile culture seedlings and rootstocks of R. glutinosa. The aim of the present study was to identify differences between R. glutinosa standard rootstock seedlings (SR), R. glutinosa culture rootstock seedlings (CR), and culture seedlings (CS) under field conditions. The reproductive characteristics of the aerial part were more robust while the area and length of leaves were smaller for SR than those for CR and CS. The characteristic that differed the most in SR was flowering, which did not occur in CR and CS. In addition, the fresh and dry weights of the subterranean parts of CR and CS were two-fold greater than those of SR. Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) analysis showed only slight differences between the chemical constituents of SR and its culture products, which was confirmed by measuring the content of catalpol, an indexing substance. Catalpol had a reduced content in the culture products compared to SR. However, this difference was not significant. Our findings will be useful for the identification of the best seedling type of R. glutinosa to enable its mass production.

Improvement of the Field Productivity in Rehmannia glutinosa Libosch. Crops by Application of N, P and K Fertilizers and Plant Spacing

“…This content quantified in the present study ranged from 6.2-8.2 mg gG 1 , which was roughly three times more than the current national standards of Vietnam and China. This studyʼs catalpol amount was similar to a recent verification by Kim et al 22 , which used the same method of determination and standard rootstock seedling for cultivation. The dry root of Chinese foxglove was standardized to contain 5.4 mg gG 1 catalpol, which was determined by the same method of HPLC with the present study 41 .…”

“…Moreover, seed propagation was traditionally accepted but not preferred recently due to reduced seed availability and low propagation rate. Therefore, root cutting propagation with the application of plant regeneration, micropropagation and plant transformation have been selected for high-efficiency propagations and plant bioactive compound improvement 21,22 . Although, these biotechnological applications have been developed and played important roles in the manipulation of plants for improvement of medicinal plant crops and the production of bioactive compounds, their feasibility in agricultural production is more complex and still needs further optimization.…”

Verification of the Field Productivity and Bioequivalence of a Medicinal Plant (Polygonum multiflorum) Developed Using an In Vitro Culture Method

“…Therefore, a quantitative comparison of the underground and the aboveground biomasses was conducted. Most research on tissue culturing in Korea is related to the medicinal parts of Korean oriental medicine plants, which means that there has been previous research on root hypertrophy because it is mainly the roots that are used in traditional Korean medicine [ 21 , 22 ]. The results of the comparison between the SS and CS underground parts of P. multiflorum plants showed that the underground biomass of the CS samples was higher than that of the SS samples.…”

“…In particular, sucrose is closely related to the development of food crop tubers [ 28 ]. Furthermore, the production of medicinal resources is related to the formation of tuber roots in Rehmannia glutinosa and Pinellia ternata [ 21 , 22 ]. Therefore, the formation of P. multiflorum tubers may also be partly owing to sucrose, and previous research on Korean oriental medicine plants [ 20 ] has suggested that this may explain why CS-derived plants have higher fresh weights than SS-derived plants.…”

Evaluation of Marker Compounds and Biological Activity of In Vitro Regenerated and Commercial Rehmannia glutinosa (Gaertn.) DC. Roots Subjected to Steam Processing

“…Previously, our research group developed an optimum in vitro propagation protocol for the high-quality production of R. glutinosa seedlings and rootstocks [ 11 ] which has been patented under patent number 10-1881305. Our protocol has also been evaluated in a large field farming system and was able to produce greater rhizome biomass than the commercially available R. glutinosa seedlings [ 12 ]. To provide high-quality processed R. glutinosa for commercialization purposes in the traditional medication system, we further evaluated our processed R. glutinosa products by comparing the roots of R. glutinosa obtained from in vitro and commercial plants.…”