English

Abstract

Angelica sinensis (Oliv.) Diels (family Apiaceae) is a perennial herb that has been widely used in Traditional Chinese Medicine. The soil sickness has become one of the major constrains in A. sinensis cultivation. A pot experiment was done to evaluate the role of biological nature in A. sinensis soil sickness. The pot experiment include three treatments (i) contol, which represent as the soil in pot taken from spring wheat stands, (ii) AA, which represent as the soil in pot taken from A. sinensis stands, (iii) S-AA, which represent as the soil in pot was sterilized by steam at 121°C for 4 h taken from A. sinensis stands. Results showed that the plant height, dry weight of aboveground part and roots, root yield and quality, and the activities of SOD and POD in leaves were significantly higher in sterilized replant soil than in non-sterilized replant soil treatment, while the activity of CAT and content of MDA in leaves were declined, which indicated that soil sterilization improved plant haleness and increased the activities of active oxygen scavenging enzymes. The results also demonstrated that soil sterilization can change the number of culturable microbial populations and the species diversity of bacterial functional group. Higher Shannon-Wiener index was found in rhizosphere soils under sterilized soil cropping than that under non-sterilized soil cropping. This suggests that the biological factor played a causal role in the development of A. sinensis soil sickness and sterilization of continuous cropping soil could change the composition and structure of soil microbial community, which further promote plant growth and alleviate A. sinensis soil sickness. © 2016 Friends Science Publishers