Background : Panax ginseng the king of Oriental medicines, has enormous potential against many of the disease symptoms and ailments. Panax quinquefolius is an another important member of Panax family which has similar benefits and medicinal properties. Both the species contains ginsenosides a pharmacologically active component abundant in their roots. In an effort to establish the new ginseng cultivars with improved agronomical characters such as root shape, stress tolerant and higher ginsenoside contents, the reciprocal interspecific hybrids were generated Methods and Results : Four elite cultivars and two new lines of ginseng were chosen to produce interspecies reciprocal hybrids with P. quinquefolius, by pollen dusting on the emasculated flowers. Among the F1 populations, the reciprocal hybrids generated by using new line 0837 both as maternal and paternal parent showed better properties and hybrid vigor. They showed strong root phenotypes with many lateral and fine roots thus having 10% to 20% higher ginsenoside contents compared to the parental populations. Among the major ginsenosides, the pharmacologically active ginsenosides such as Re, Rb1, Rb2 and F1 were enriched and accounted for the 70% of the PPD ginsenosides in 0837/Pq and Pq/0837 crosses, displaying strong dominance. Conclusion : Thus, based on our result we could conclude that P. ginseng line 0837 is the superior variety compared to the already existing lines for performing the interspecific hybrids with promising outcome in their root quality and ginsenoside content.

Background : Panax ginseng Meyer, the king of Oriental medicine is a geophytic perennial shrub. P. ginseng possess long juvenile period which spans for at least 3-years before it could attain reproductive competence. To explore the significance of flowering time genes we isolated, characterized the Flowering Locus T (FT) gene and named as PgFT1 and PgFT2 to understand their role in ginseng floral transition. Methods and Results : By using extensive cloning and bioinformatics analysis we identified two FT homologs from ginseng a. The deduced PgFT sequences has a considerable homology to established FT homologs with the essential amino acids of a florigen function conserved. The tissue specific expression profiling by Real-time qPCR from the juvenile (2-years-old) and adult (4-year-old) ginseng plants have shown a spatial and temporal expression pattern, furthermore PgFT transcripts exhibited photoperiod dependent oscillation as well. Besides, PgFT1 and PgFT2 have shown an age specific expression pattern, in particular the transcripts were concentrated to the roots of P. ginseng. The ectopic expression of PgFT homologs in Arabidopsis thaliana induce precocious flowering by altering several floral pathway integrators, in addition PgFT1 transgenic Arabidopsis seedlings had an increased root length while, the influence of PgFT2 in transgenic seedlings apart from flowering is as yet to be revealed. Conclusion : Based on our results, we alleged the spatial and temporal expression of PgFT homologs could be significant in the flowering time transition of ginseng and their age specific expression pattern suggests the roots of ginseng are influential in determining the reproductive competency. On top of it, results from transgenic studies in Arabidopsis claimed that PgFT1 might involve in the underground organ development. Albeit, their molecular regulation, developmental role and the manipulation of PgFTs in ginseng flowering warranties further investigation.

Background : Bokbonja the Korean black raspberry (Rubus coreanus Miquel) fruit derived product, which is native to Korea. They contain potential anti-aging, anti-oxidants, depurative activities. Bokbonja refers to an immature berry of Rubus coreanus in the Korean pharmacopeia, Rubus chingii in Chinese pharmacopeia. Recently several Rubus species are available in the Korean drug markets which could easily find their way into drug prescriptions. Methods and Results : Hence we tried to detect the presence of these contaminating species in bokbonja products using SNP marker assisted by multi-plex PCR. We found a SNP region in the 26S region of these species and evaluated their potential to discriminate Rubus species. We designed a set of primer pairs such as, BokR primer has distinguished R.coreanus by producing a band at 852 bp and the primer sanF has differentiated R. crataegifolius by amplifying a band at 129 bp, while chiF has produced a band at 83 bp to distinguish R.chingii. These primer pairs effectively distinguished the bokbonja samples collected from various local markets as well as form drug store in Korea as well. The results were shocking as the bokbonja (R.coreanus) has a limited usage in Korea and either R. crataegifolius or R.chingii has been found in these samples. Taken together the primer pairs bokR, sanF, chiF along with 26S universal primers could effectively distinguish Rubus species in a single multiplex PCR reaction. Conclusion : Our results based on the 26S rDNA derived SNP region have shown that, the usage of R. coreanus is extremely limited and its often mistaken or adulterated with R. crataegifolius and R. chingii. It presses a panic situation in Korean peninsula to preserve bokbonja and the species R.coreanus which is endemic and superior in efficacy.

Background : Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) is a multipurpose small tree with unique berries of high nutritional and pharmaceutical values has wide spread distribution from Eurasia to South east Asia. In recent times the medicinal benefits of vitamin tree are inclining, hence, efforts were taken to propagate them in vitro to exploit their medicinal property. Methods and Results : The tissue culture potential of them was investigated for the ability to induce shoot organogenesis in leaf explant, and induction of direct somatic embryogenesis from leaf tissue. Moreover, we also determined the effective induction medium for callus and somatic embryo production from H. rhamnoides. To induce the callus form leaf tissue, several phytohormone combinations such as α-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) and 6-benzyladenine (BA), 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and 6-benzyladenine (BA), and Kinetin (K) were tried with the Murashige and Skoog (MS) as well as woody plant medium (WPM). In MS basal medium, the combination of 2,4-D and K showed the best callus induction rate of 71%, whereas in WPM basal medium the combination of NAA and BA showed the best callus induction rate of 91%. The adventitious root induction form callus was also attempted by using MS and B5 medium with the phytohormone combinations of IBA 1 – 5 g/ℓ. In MS medium, root was induced only at 4 g/ℓ of IBA and 64%, 51% and 55% root induction results were obtained at 3 g/ℓ, 4 g/ℓ and 5 g/ℓ in B5 basal medium, respectively. The somatic embryos were induced only in half strength MS with the triple phytohormone ratio of 2:1:2 of NAA, BA, and K. Conclusion : The in vitro propagation of sea buckthorn was successfully employed by generating callus, adventitious roots as well as the induction of somatic embryos form the leaf tissues derived callus. Our results provided a valuable addition to the utilization of H. rhamnoides thus enabling their propagation.

Background : Ginseng root rot is a devastating disease caused by the fungus, Ilyonectria mors-panacis that generally attacks younger roots (-2 years), leading to defects in root quality, ginsenoside accumulation and also life cycle of the plant. Hence, there is an indispensable need to develop strategies resulting in tolerance against ginseng root rot. The protective role of silicon during pathogen infestation is well documented in other plant systems and a previous study demonstrated that silica nanoparticles are absorbed and accumulated more than the bulk silica in maize. However, the role of silica in ginseng-root rot pathosystem is unknown. Methods and Results : In the present study, we evaluated the effect of silica nanoparticles (N-SiO2) in Panax ginseng during I. mors-panacis infection. Long term analysis (30 dpi) revealed a striking 50% reduction in disease severity index upon 1 mM and 2 mM treatment of N-SiO2. However, N-SiO2 did not have any direct antifungal activity against I. mors-panacis. Candidate genes and metabolites based approach revealed jasmonic acid (JA) mediated sterol accumulation and incresed ginsenside biosyntesis as the key transcriptional reprogramming events orchestrated by N-SiO2 during the fungal infection. Conclusion : In a nut shell, N-SiO2 administration induces transcriptional reprogramming in ginseng roots, leading to increased phytosterol and ginsenosides synthesis resulting in enhanced tolerance against I. mors-panacis.