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Circadian rhythm refers to the daily rhythmic variations in an organism. The irregular lifestyles of modern humans have led to a high incidence of chronic diseases, highlighting an inseparable relationship between disrupted circadian rhythm and disease development. TCM has long discussed rhythmic variations, with records dating back to the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon(Huang Di Nei Jing), which laid a rich theoretical foundation for the research on circadian rhythm. Modern medical research has provided a more comprehensive explanation of its molecular mechanisms. This article integrated the current understanding of circadian rhythm in both Chinese and western medicine, emphasizing the crucial relationship between rhythm regulation and disease treatment. By highlighting the interdisciplinary nature of the two fields, it offers new directions for exploring the field of chronomedicine.

In this study, visual-near infrared(VNIR), short-wave infrared(SWIR), and VNIR + SWIR fusion hyperspectral data of Polygonatum cyrtonema from different geographical origins were collected and preprocessed by first derivative(FD), second derivative(SD), Savitzky-Golay smoothing(S-G), standard normalized variate(SNV), multiplicative scatter correction(MSC), FD+S-G, and SD+S-G. Three algorithms, namely random forest(RF), linear support vector classification(LinearSVC), and partial least squares discriminant analysis(PLS-DA), were used to establish the identification models of P. cyrtonema origin from three spatial scales, i.e., province, county, and township, respectively. Successive projection algorithm(SPA) and competitive adaptive reweighted sampling(CARS) were used to screen the characteristic bands, and the P. cyrtonema origin identification models were established according to the selected characteristic bands. The results showed that(1)after FD preprocessing of VNIR+SWIR fusion hyperspectral data, the accuracy of recognition models established using LinearSVC was the highest, reaching 99.97% and 99.82% in the province origin identification model, 100.00% and 99.46% in the county origin identification model, and 99.62% and 98.39% in the township origin identification model. The accuracy of province, county, and township origin identification models reached more than 98.00%.(2)Among the 26 characteristic bands selected by CARS, after FD pretreatment, the accuracy of origin identification models of different spatial scales was the highest using LinearSVC, reaching 98.59% and 97.05% in the province origin identification model, 97.79% and 94.75% in the county origin identification model, and 90.13% and 87.95% in the township origin identification model. The accuracy of identification models of different spatial scales established by 26 characteristic bands reached more than 87.00%. The results show that hyperspectral imaging technology can realize accurate identification of P. cyrtonema origin from different spatial scales.

Rhizome rot is one of the main disease in the cultivation of Polygonatum cyrtonema, and it is also a global disease which seriously occurs on the perennial medicinal plants such as Panax notoginseng and P. ginseng. There is no effective control method at present. To identify the effects of three biocontrol microbes(Penicillium oxalicum QZ8, Trichoderma asperellum QZ2, and Brevibacillus amyloliquefaciens WK1) on the pathogens causing rhizome rot of P. cyrtonema, this study verified six suspected pathogens for their pathogenicity on P. cyrtonema. The result showed that Fusarium sp. HJ4, Colletotrichum sp. HJ4-1, and Phomopsis sp. HJ15 were the pathogens of rhizome rot of P. cyrtonema, and it was found for the first time that Phomopsis sp. could cause rhizome rot P. cyrtonema. Furthermore, the inhibitory effects of biocontrol microbes and their secondary metabolites on three pathogens were determined by confrontation culture. The results showed that the three tested biocontrol microbes significantly inhibited the growth of three pathogens. Moreover, the secondary metabolites of T. asperellum QZ2 and B. amyloliquefaciens WK1 showed significant inhibition against the three pathogens(P<0.05), and the effect of B. amyloliquefaciens WK1 sterile filtrate was significantly higher than that of high tempe-rature sterilized filtrate(P<0.05). B. amyloliquefaciens WK1 produced antibacterial metabolites to inhibit the growth of pathogens, and the growth inhibition rate of its sterile filtrate against three pathogens ranged from 87.84% to 93.14%. T. asperellum QZ2 inhibited the growth of pathogens through competition and antagonism, and P. oxalicum QZ8 exerted the inhibitory effect through competition. The research provides new ideas for the prevention and treatment of rhizome rot of P. cyrtonema and provides a basis for the di-sease control in other crops.

WRKY transcription factor family plays an important role in plant growth and development, secondary metabolite synthesis, and biotic and abiotic stress responses. The present study performed full-length transcriptome sequencing of Polygonatum cyrtonema by virtue of the PacBio SMRT high-throughput platform, identified the WRKY family by bioinformatics methods, and analyzed the physicochemical properties, subcellular localization, phylogeny, and conserved motifs. The results showed that 30.69 Gb nucleotide bases and 89 564 transcripts were obtained after redundancy removal. These transcripts had a mean length of 2 060 bp and an N50 value of 3 156 bp. Based on the full-length transcriptome sequencing data, 64 candidate proteins were selected from the WRKY transcription factor family, with the protein size of 92-1 027 aa, the relative molecular mass of 10 377.85-115 779.48 kDa, and the isoelectric point of 4.49-9.84. These WRKY family members were mostly located in the nucleus and belonged to the hydrophobic proteins. According to the phylogenetic analysis of WRKY family in P. cyrtonema and Arabidopsis thaliana, all WRKY family members were clustered into seven subfamilies and WRKY proteins from P. cyrtonema were distributed in different numbers in these seven subgroups. Expression pattern analysis confirmed that 40 WRKY family members had distinct expression patterns in the rhizomes of 1-and 3-year-old P. cyrtonema. Except for PcWRKY39, the expression of 39 WRKY family members was down-regulated in 3-year-old samples. In conclusion, this study provides abundant reference data for genetic research on P. cyrtonema and lays a foundation for the in-depth investigation of the biological functions of the WRKY family.

Interdisciplinary integration is a major feature of current scientific and technological development and also an inherent demand of economic and social development. The classic works in traditional Chinese medicine(TCM), such as Huangdi's Internal Classic(Huang Di Nei Jing) and Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica(Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing), contain rich and distinctive geographic ideas about the origin of Chinese medicine and prescriptions. There are many TCM schools and the distribution of each school has obvious geographical characteristics. The difference in geographical space is a major factor causing the difference in schools. There have been records of drugs and places of origin in previous documents of the Han Dynasty. Many drug names in Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica begin with ancient country names or ancient place names, indicating that the compilers attached great importance to the relationship between drugs and places of origin. Doctors in the Tang Dynasty have realized that the quality of medicinal materials was closely related to the place of origin, and each place of origin had herbalists to support the harvesting. The national yearly harvested drugs were all distributed with the places of origin. In the Song Dynasty, there were more records about the origin of drugs than in the Tang Dynasty, and the drawings attached to the Materia Medica Arranged According to Pattern(Zheng Lei Ben Cao) were titled with the names of the origins. In the Jin and Yuan dynasties, the literature on Chinese materia medica inherited the relationship between the origin and quality of drugs and contained rich geographical views in the "medication method". In the Ming Dynasty, the literature on Chinese materia medica was the first to clearly label the Daodi origin, and recognized the differences in quality and application of drugs between different origins. In the Qing Dynasty, doctors realized that there were variations and differences in the origins of drugs used by doctors in different periods, and the problem of origin was one of the reasons for the ineffectiveness of drugs. During the period of the Republic of China, doctors also paid great attention to the relationship between the origin of drugs and the quality of drugs, and the changes in the origin of drugs. TCM and geography share a common philosophical foundation. To inherit and develop the experience of doctors in the past dynasties on the relationship between drugs and origins, it is necessary to combine "Chinese materia medica" with "geography" to carry out the research on the geography of Chinese medicine, conduct multidisciplinary integration, build a new way to inherit and innovate the essence of TCM, promote the connection between philosophy of Yi, medical science, pharmacology, and geography, better serve the production practice of TCM, and promote the solution of problems related to the development of the Chinese medicine industry.

As revealed by the investigation on the name change, biological characteristics, artificial cultivation, and edible history of Polygonatum kingianum var. grandifolium, it was described as a variation pattern of P. kingianum in the Chinese version of Flora of China(1978) and as a variant of P. kingianum in the revised English version of the Flora of China(2000). P. kingianum var. grandifolium, long been consumed as food by local folks, has been widely cultivated in its natural distribution area and circulated as Polygonati Rhizoma in the market. The important biological properties of P. kingianum var. grandifolium make it possess a great potential of being consumed as both medicine and food. The shoots of P. kingianum var. grandifolium sprout immediately out of the ground after seed germination and a new seedling will be formed at the same year, implying that its seedling cultivation period is at least two years shorter than that of P. cyrtonema. It can sprout more than twice a year, and the adult plants always remain evergreen, thereby obtaining higher biomass. Its rhizome biomass can be more than one time higher than that of P. cyrtonema. With reference to the diploid P. cyrtonema, flow cytometry revealed the polyploid and aneuploid forms in natural populations, which were tall and light-adapted with large underground rhizome. It can grow normally under the forest canopy and in the open field. Furthermore, P. kingianum var. grandifolium has important theoretical values for the study of ploidy variation, bud dormancy mechanism, etc.

Rhizome rot disease is one of the main disease of planted Polygonatum kingianum. In this study, six strains of pathogenic fungus was isolated from P. kingianum samples with rhizome rot disease collected from six counties in Yunnan province. Its pathogenicity was confirmed by inoculation to healthy P. kingianum rhizome according to Koch's postulates. The colonies of the isolated fungi on potato dextrose agar(PDA) were orange with abundant crescentic conidia which were eseptate with a mean size of 19. 3-24. 9 μm×5. 2-5. 9 μm and a L/W ratio of 3. 4-4. 5. There was an oil ball in the center of the conidium. It's easy to see setae on PDA colony.The phylogenetic tree based on ITS, GAPDH, CHS-1, HIS3, ACT, and TUB2 sequences by maximum likelihood(ML) method indicated that the pathogenic fungus for P. kingianum rhizome rot disease was clustered into the clade of Colletotrichum spaethianum species complex, and was close to C. spaethianum. However, there were some differences in morphological and genetic characteristics between the pathogenic fungus and C. spaethianum. Therefore, the pathogenic fungus for rhizome rot disease of P. kingianum was identified as a new Colletotrichum species named C. kingianum. The disease spreads primarily due to the plantation of infected seedlings of P. kingianum. It is necessary to choose healthy seedlings and take rigorous disinfection measures for the disease prevention.

The medicinal and edible Polygonatum cyrtonema is one of the original species of Polygonati Rhizoma. In this study,HPLC fingerprints for 25 batches of P. cyrtonema from 6 provinces were established. A total of 14 common peaks were identified and the similarities of the fingerprints were in the range of 0. 939-0. 999. In additon, the partial least squares-discriminant analysis(PLSDA) demonstrated that the samples had low discriminability except for JX-1 and most components of them had no significant correlation with environmental factors such as longitude, latitude, and altitude. Thus, chemical composition specificity of P. cyrtonema in natural distribution areas had no obvious regularity and their variation might be induced by the local environment. This conclusion explained the lack of records about Dao-di area of Polygonati Rhizoma. However, JX-1 boasted significantly higher content of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural(HMF) and 4',5,7-trihydroxy-6,8-dimethylhomoisoflavone( HIF), thick and long inflorescence and rhizome, and extremely high yield. Therefore, excellent variety of P. cyrtonema might have great potential to improve the quality and yield of Polygonati Rhizoma. Moreover, three components of HMF, polygonalline A(PA), and HIF were identified in the fingerprint. Among them, HMF has the activities of blood rheology improvement, antioxidation, and anti-myocardial ischemia and PA is an indolizine alkaloid with potential anti-inflammatory activity. HIF, the characteristic homoisoflavone in Polygonatum, has the pharmacological activities of regulating blood glucose and anti-tumor. A quantitative analysis method can provide a theoretical basis for the improvement of the quality evaluation of Polygonati Rhizoma.

The flower of Polygonatum cyrtonema has good edible and medicinal values. In this study, four samples of P. cyrtonema flowers from different regions were selected as test materials. The contents, composition and antioxidant activities of lipid-soluble pigments and alcohol-soluble components were determined under different light and temperature conditions, which help to reveal the discoloration reason and the composition variation patterns during storage. The results showed that light and temperature had different effects on the lipid-soluble pigments and alcohol-soluble components in the dried flowers during storage. After storage for 4 weeks, the contents of total chlorophyll, carotenoids, phenols and saponins in the samples exposed to light respectively decreased by 62.62%, 66.4%, 68.7% and 43.4% compared with those in the dark. The decreases in the contents of chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, lutein, β-carotene and zeaxanthin were 64.64%, 56.74%, 59.2%, 77.7% and 45.4%, respectively. The contents of pigments and components in the samples stored at-20 ℃ were significantly higher than those at room temperature and 4 ℃, indicating that low temperature was conductive to the stability of lipid-soluble pigments and alcohol-soluble components. The samples stored at low temperature and in the dark had the strongest free radical scavenging activity. The results suggest that P. cyrtonema dried flowers should be stored in low temperature environment without light, which can slow down the degradation of internal components. The study provides a theoretical basis for the production, processing and storage of P. cyrtonema flowers.

The study is aimed to investigate the reproductive biology characteristics of Polygonatum cyrtonema, especially including phenology, flower bud differentiation, flowering timing, floral traits, pollen vigor and stigma receptivity. The results showed that P. cyrtonema forms inflorescence before the leaves spread. In the wild, P. cyrtonema is mainly pollinated by insects such as bumblebees, with a seed setting rate of 65.12%. The seed setting rate of indoor single plant isolation or self-pollination enclosed by parchment paper bag is 0, indicating that it is self-incompatible. In Lin'an city, seedlings begin to emerge from mid-March to early April(the temperature is higher than 7.5 ℃), buds begin to emerge from the end of March to mid-April, and then undergo the full bloom stage from mid-to-late April, and the final flowering stage from the end of April to mid-May. The whole flowering period lasts 36 to 45 days. There are obvious differences in the phenology of different provenances. The flowers come into bloom from the base to the top along the aboveground main axis, which usually contain 4-22 inflorescences with(2-) 4-10(-21) flowers per inflorescence. The flowering pe-riod for a single plant is 26-38 days. The single flower lasts about 20-25 days from budding to opening and withers 2 days after pollination, and then the ovary will gradually expand. If unpollinated, it will continue to bloom for 3-5 days and then wither. Flower development period is significantly related to pollen vigor and stigma remittance. The pollen viability is the highest when the flower is fully opened with anthers gathering on the stigma, and the receptivity is the strongest when the stigma protrudes out of the perianth and secretes mucus. The fruits and seeds ripen in October, and proper shading can ensure the smooth development and maturity of the seeds. This study provides a basis for the hybrid breeding and seed production of P. cyrtonema.

Polygonatum cyrtonema is a famous bulk medicinal material which is the medicinal and edible homologous. With the implementation of the traditional Chinese medicine industry to promote precise poverty alleviation, the planting area of P. cyrtonema in Jinzhai is becoming larger and larger in recent years. Jinzhai is located in the Dabie Mountainous area, which is the largest mountain area and county in Anhui Province. The cultivation of P. cyrtonema is scattered, and the traditional Chinese medicine resources investigation is not only inefficient and accurate. In this study,the "Resource 3"(ZY-3) remote sensing image was used as the best observation phase,and the method of support vector machine classification was used. The method of parallelepiped, minimum distance, mahalanob is distance, maximum likelihood classification and neural net were used to classify and recognize the P. cyrtonema in the whole region. In order to determine the accuracy and reliability of classification results, the accuracy of six supervised classification results was evaluated by confusion matrix method, and the advantages and disadvantages of six supervised classification methods for extracting P. cyrtonema field planting area were compared and analyzed. The results showed that the method of support vector machine classification was more appropriate than that using other classification methods. It provides a scientific basis for monitoring the planting area of P. cyrtonemain field.

Unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV) remote sensing and vegetation index have great potential in the field of Chinese herbal medicine planting. In this study, the visible light image of Polygonatum odoratum planting area in Changyi district of Jilin province were acquired by UAV, and the real-time monitoring of P. odoratum planting area was realized. The green leaf index(GLI) was established, and GLI values of P. odoratum were collected used the spatial sampling points. To compare the GLI values in different periods, it was found that the GLI values of P. odoratum have three stages changing rule of rising-gentle-falling related to the germination, vigorous growth and withered of P. odoratum growth. Meanwhile, the GLI values were compared with four biomass data of P. odoratum, including plant height, leaf area, chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b content in leaves, and it was found that the GLI value was related to the growth potential of P. odoratum. The GLI value with a rapid increase in rising stage or at a high level in the gentle stage means the P. odoratum was in a better growth potential. GLI value has a same change trend with plant height, and has certain correlation with plant height and leaf area. However, there is no obvious relationship between chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b contents in leaves and GLI value. The study clarified the change rule of GLI value of P. odoratum, explained the reason for the change of GLI value, and expanded the application range of GLI. The research shows that UAV and vegetation index can be applied to monitoring the Chinese herbal medicines planting, and provides a new idea for exploring more effective information extraction methods of Chinese herbal medicines.

In order to analyze the expression of genes involved in steroidal saponin biosynthesis pathway in Polygonatum cyrtonema tubers, it is very important to select internal reference genes that are stably expressed at different development stages and in response to abiotic stress. According to the previously established P. cyrtonema transcriptome database and reported internal reference genes in plant, this study systematically analyzed eight candidate internal reference genes including histone H2 A, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, ACTIN, β-tubulin, ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme-E2-10, elongation factor 1-alpha isoform, 18 S rRNA and α-tubulin 4 for expression stability in P. cyrtonema tubers at different development stages and in response to methyl jasmonate(MeJA) stress by using Real time fluorescence quantitative PCR(qPCR). Based on the statistical analysis of qPCR results by using GeNorm, NormFinder and BestKeeper softwares, the expression of ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme-E2-10 and elongation factor 1-alpha isoform are the most stable in P. cyrtonema tubes at different development stages and in response to MeJA stress. The two internal reference genes were further validated by analyzing the expression of 4 genes involved in steroidal saponin biosynthesis pathways. In conclusion, ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme-E2-10 and elongation factor 1-alpha isoform can be used as the most appropriate internal reference genes for qPCR analysis in P. cyrtonema. This study also provide a foundation for future investigate the molecular mechanism of steroidal saponin biosynthesis pathways in P. cyrtonema.

Polygonati Rhizoma(PR), listed as a top-grade medicine, was recorded first in the Mingyi Bielu written by TAO Hongjing. It is a good medicine through the ages to tonify Qi and nourish Yin, strengthen spleen and kidney. PR has a long history of processing and has a variety of processing methods and technologies. Steaming and stewing are the main processing methods. There are many different excipients used in processing PR, such as wine, honey, black beans, and multiple excipients. At present, there are three plant varieties of PR recorded in Chinese Pharmacopoeia, including Polygonatum sibiricum, P. kingianum and P. cyrtonema, collectively called medicinal PR. Medicinal PR has a wide range of chemical components, mainly including polysaccharides, steroidal saponins, flavonoids, phenylpropanoids and alkaloids etc. It also has a wide range of pharmacological effects, such as anti-oxidation, anti-osteoporosis and anti-tumor effects. In this paper, we review the historical evolution, chemical components, pharmacological effects, and the effects of processing on ingredients and pharmacological effects of PR. We also analyze the limitations of the current research on PR, and put forward the prospects on the scientific connotation of processing, quality improvement, process innovation and new product development of PR for further researches.

Using the 260 geographical distribution records of Polygonatum cyrtonema in China, combined with 53 environmental factors, the maximum entropy modeling(MaxEnt) was used to study the ecological factors affecting the suitability distribution of P. cyrtonema. The ArcGIS software was used to predict the potential distribution of the population of P. cyrtonema. The dominant factors were chosen by using the Jackknife test and the Receiver Operating Characteristic(ROC) curve was used to evaluate the simulation. The results showed that high value of area under curve(AUC) denoted good results, which significantly differed from random predictions. Based on the evaluation criterion, the accuracies of the predictions of P. cyrtonema potential distribution in the current periods were excellent. The main environmental factors affecting the suitable growth of P. cyrtonema were the monthly precipitation, the wettest monthly precipitation, the annual average temperature range and the precipitation of November, March, February, April, May and October. There are 9 environmental factors in soil type. The potential fitness of P. cyrtonema in China is high, mainly concentra-ted in Hunan, western Hubei, Guangdong, northeastern Guangxi, southeastern Guizhou, Jiangxi, southwestern Anhui, Fujian, Zhejiang, Shaanxi, southwestern Henan and Chongqing. The growth distribution of the potential distribution area of P. cyrtonema was divided, and the zoning map of the growth suitability of P. cyrtonema was formed. Through the comparative analysis of the potential distribution range based on MaxEnt and the distribution range of literature records, the understanding of the distribution range of P. cyrtonema was expanded.

Steroidal saponins, which are the characteristic and main active constituents of Polygonatum, exhibit a broad range of pharmacological functions, such as regulating blood sugar, preventing cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and anti-tumor. In this study, we performed RNA sequencing(RNA-Seq) analysis for the flowers, leaves, roots, and rhizomes of Polygonatum cyrtonema using the BGISEQ-500 platform to understand the biosynthesis pathway of steroidal saponins and study their key enzyme genes. The assembly of transcripts for four tissues generated 129 989 unigenes, of which 88 958 were mapped to several public databases for functional annotation, 22 813 unigenes were assigned to 53 subcategories and 64 877 unigenes were annotated to 136 pathways in KEGG database. Furthermore, 502 unigenes involved in the biosynthesis pathway of steroidal saponins were identified, of which 97 unigenes encoding 12 key enzymes. Cycloartenol synthase, the first key enzyme in the pathway of phytosterol biosynthesis, showed conserved catalytic domain and substrate binding domain based on sequence analysis and homology modeling. Differentially expressed genes(DEGs) were identified in rhizomes as compared to other tissues(flowers, leaves or roots).The 2 437 unigenes annotated by KEGG showed rhizome-specific expression, of which 35 unigenes involved in the biosynthesis of steroidal saponins. Our results greatly extend the public transcriptome dataset of Polygonatum and provide valuable information for the identification of candidate genes involved in the biosynthesis of steroidal saponins and other important secondary metabolites.

To enrich the transcriptome data in rhizome of Polygonatum cyrtonema seedlings, identify candidate functional genes involved in steroidal saponin biosynthesis and provide genetic resources for the research on anabolism pathway and regulatory mechanism of active components in P. cyrtonema, Illumina platform was applied to perform transcriptomic sequencing of rhizome of P. cyrtonema, followed by a series of bioinformatics analysis on RNA-seq data, including de novo assembly, annotation, classification and metabolic pathway analysis of the assembled unigene. Meanwhile, a deep analysis on the steroidal saponin biosynthesis in secondary metabolism pathway was performed. The results showed a total of 126 546 unigene were obtained by de novo transcriptome assembly, of which 47 226 were annotated. Of these, 16 499 unigene were mapped to 132 specific pathways, of which 2 768 were identified to be involved in 22 secondary metabolic pathways. One hundred and thirteen unigene were identified from the transcriptome database, which encoded 27 metabolic enzymes associated with steroidal saponin biosynthesis and shared similarity with 45 functional genes in Arabidopsis thaliana. In conclusion, a series of candidate functional genes, which might be involved in steroidal saponin biosynthesis, were selected from the transcriptome database of P. cyrtonema rhizome. Further investigation of these candidate genes will provide insight into their actual functions in the steroidal saponin biosynthetic pathway in P. cyrtonema. In addition, this study also provide abunant reference data for transcriptome characterization of P. cyrtonema and has important significance for functional genomics of P. cyrtonema.

Polygonatum plants are perennial plants of Liliaceae. There are about 60 species reported at home and abroad,32 species in China,mainly distributed in the north temperate zone. Their main chemical components are steroidal saponins,polysaccharides,flavonoids,alkaloids,etc. They have anti-aging,anti-tumor,immunomodulation,antibacterial,antiviral,hypoglycemic and blood lipid effects. With the development of health industry,Polygonati Rhizome used as medicine and food has attracted great attention in recent years,and has become a research hotspot. However,the material basis of its efficacy is unclear and the product quality is uneven,which seriously limited the rapid upgrading of the industry. This review summarizes Polygonatum plants system classification,the chemical composition and pharmacological activity to provide theoretical basis for the development and utilization of Polygonatum plants.

Field surveys and literatures show that Polygonati Rhizome (Huangjing) was firstly recorded in Shen Nong&s Herbal Classic, and widely used as a medicinal and edible plant. It has a long history of cultivation, and the researches on chemistry have made some progress. The future development is prospected on health market. But the Polygonati Rhizome industry has faced a lot of problems, including the resource depletion, unstable quality, low-tech in cultivation and germplasm confusion, unclear of functional composition, decentralized, small scaled and primary processing products. The suggestion for sustainable development are listed below. First, the relevant researches should focused on material basis and biological mechanism of core effects. To speed up the selection and breeding of improved varieties, ensure the supply of high-quality seedlings and eliminate the unauthentic species are the most important measures. Secondly, to strengthen the conservation and rational use of wild resources, break through the key technologies of high-quality artificial cultivation on light regulation, site control, density control and precision harvesting are also very important. Thirdly, to reveal the toxicity-reducing-and-efficacy-enhancing mechanism of processing, optimize the parameters and setup the standard operating procedure are indispensable. Fourthly, that full advantage of the root, leaf, flower and fruit resources should be strengthened for enlarged health products based on the development of exact functional factors. Above all, Polygonati Rhizome could be a growing market in the future driven by the technological innovation, cultural creativity, integration of three industries, brand strategy and internet+technique., Competing Interests: The authors of this article and the planning committee members and staff have no relevant financial relationships with commercial interests to disclose., (Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.)

Polygonatum is a genus of the perennial herb family Liliaceae, with great potential in food, medicine and other field. In this study, genetic diversity and cluster structure analysis of 6 species in Polygonatum were investigated the molecular marker technique of simple sequence repeat (SSR). A total of 49 SSR makers were used to study genetic diversity and population structure within 60 germplasm resources which obtained from 38 counties and cities in 14 provinces of China. A total of 211 alleles were identified and the number of alleles ranged from 2 to 10, with an average of 4.306 1 alleles per SSR. The range of polymorphism information content (PIC) varied from 0.731 8 to 0.031 7, with the average of 0.309 6. The cluster analysis classified 60 germplasm resources into four defined groups at the genetic distance value of 0.26, among which most species with relatives were clustered into the same group. Extraordinarily, there were 6 germplasm resources clustered into other species, indicating that the classification of inter-genus and geographical distribution was crossed in Polygonatum. The genetic diversity index of the 4 geographical populations from high to low was: Western region, Central China, Southern China, Eastern China. The population structure analysis, also indicating divided the entire collection into four groups, which was similar to the assignment pattern of cluster structure analysis. These results suggested that the Polygonatum germplasm resources used in this study is rich in relatively high genetic diversity with large variation range, relatively fuzzy boundaries of species. It appeared the phenomenon that there is a difference decreases between the alternate leaf system and the rotation leaf system. The genetic diversity in the western region was higher than that in other regions, and the western region may be the origin center of the genus Polygonatum., Competing Interests: The authors of this article and the planning committee members and staff have no relevant financial relationships with commercial interests to disclose., (Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.)