Medicinal plants of Chinese Pharmacopoeia and Daodi:Insights fromphylogeny and biogeography

Objective: The Chinese Pharmacopoeia(2015) includes 584 plant medicines, of which 284 also contain high quality subsets, so called "Daodi" components, where Daodi denotes superior clinical properties compared to non-Daodi counterparts despite being sourced from the same species. Commercial and clinical drivers of selection for Daodi have been described elsewhere. Our objective is to investigate the overall composition of Daodi to determine in what ways medicines with Daodi as a whole differ from the other plants of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia. A further objective is to characterise the Chinese Pharmacopoeia and Daodi in terms of the plant species including their traits and distribution.Methods: We used trait analysis to identify whether Daodi species were significantly different from the remaining Chinese Pharmacopoeia plant species in any traits. We used biogeographic methods and an existing classification of Daodi into 10 regions to identify spatial patterns amongst the species. Regression and binomial analyses were used to test for over-and under-use of plant families and endemic species.Preferences for lineages were visualized using phylogenetic mapping.Results: We found that Daodi species(species with any Daodi subset) were more likely to be roots that are "hot" or "warm", and less likely to be "oxic", according to traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) concepts. Roots were over-represented in the Bei region, and whole plants over-represented in Guang. Both the Chinese Pharmacopoeia and Daodi indicated preferences for families not common in previously studied ethnopharmacopoeias, and fewer endemic species were represented than expected by chance.Conclusion: Using the phylogenetic and biogeographical methods, we highlighted patterns of plant use,and the biological characters of Daodi medicinal plants. Our study points towards cultural preferences in need of scientific explanation.

Discrimination of Five Species of Panax Genus and their Geographical Origin Using Electronic Tongue Combined with Chemometrics

Objective:Authentication is vital to the reduction of the misuse of Panax species due to their extensive array of uses and similarities between species.However,the current authentication approach is time-consuming,laborious,and costly.The aim of this study is to discriminate the botanical origins of five species in Panax genus by a rapid and simple approach.Methods:Here,an electronic tongue(E-tongue)was applied to discriminate the botanical origins of five species of Panax,i.e.,Panax quinquefolius,Panax japonicus,P.japonicus var.major,Panax zingiberensis,and Panax notoginseng(representative high-,middle-,and low-latitude plants),and the four geographical origins of P.japonicus and P.japonicus var.major plants.Data preprocessing methods,including principal component analysis(PCA),hierarchical cluster analysis(HCA),and linear discriminant analysis(LDA),were used.Results:Three models can discriminate five species of Panax genus and four plants of P.japonicus and P.japonicus var.major from different geographical origins.LDA was superior to PCA and HCA in terms of satisfactory classification.Conclusion:The findings confirmed the potential of the E-tongue for performing rapid,simple,and cost-effective discrimination via LDA.