Abstract
Cistanche deserticola Y.C. Ma has long been used for medical purposes in China. It mainly grows in the Chinese provinces of Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Gansu, and Xinjiang, and the species in the Alxa region of northwest China, have the most distinct qualities. To explain the geoherbalism quality and geographical distribution of C. deserticola, we sampled 65 wild plants in Alxa, determined their echinacoside and acteoside content, and assessed the relationship between the ecological environment and quality of C. deserticola through maximum entropy modeling and geographic information system. We identified the areas suitable for the growth of high-quality C. deserticola species. The regionalization analysis of growth suitability showed that the most influential ecological factors for the growth of C. deserticola are soil type, annual sunshine duration, altitude, temperature seasonality (standard deviation ×100), vegetation type, sunshine duration in the growing season, mean precipitation in August and mean temperature in July. The most suitable areas for growing C. deserticola are southeast of Ejin Banner, central Alxa Right Banner, and north of Alxa Left Banner. The regionalization analysis of quality suitability showeds that the most influential ecological factors for glycosides in C. deserticola are sunshine duration in June, average precipitation in May, and average temperature in March, and the best-quality C. deserticola grows in Dalaihob Town, Ejin Banner. Upon inspection, the result of the experiment reached a high accuracy of 0.994, which indicates that these results are consistent with the actual distribution of C. deserticola in Alxa. The results of this study may serve as a scientific basis for site selection of artificial planting bases for C. deserticola.
Highlights
IntroductionA quantitative relationship between the ecological environment and the quality of medicinal plants can be established using correlation and cluster analyses[2,3,4]
Since the publication of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia (1977), C. deserticola had been regarded as the only orthodox source of Cistanche. and it was later found that C. deserticola was in shortage compared with its large market demand
Alxa, in Inner Mongolia (97°10′E–106°52′E/37°21′N–42°47′N) is the most ideal location for the growth of C. deserticola species and its host plants, Saxaul (Haloxylon ammodendron), asit is located in the central Asian continent, on an inland plateau far from the sea, and has a typical continental climate
Summary
A quantitative relationship between the ecological environment and the quality of medicinal plants can be established using correlation and cluster analyses[2,3,4] This regionalization methodology for growth suitability has been widely used to assess the suitability of the origins of medicinal plants, with good results[5,6]. Wild C. deserticola requires a highly specific growing environment and environmental conditions have a great influence on the qualities of the plant It is only distributed in some desert areas in China’s Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Xinjiang areas. The aim of this study was to conduct a regionalization study on the quality of C. deserticola in Alxa by Maxent modeling, in a bid to identify suitable areas for the growth of high-quality C. deserticola species, and promote their cultivation in such suitable areas
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