University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations Dissertations and Theses October 2019 EFFECTS OF FERTILIZATION AND DRYING CONDITIONS ON THE QUALITY OF SELECTED CHINESE MEDICINAL PLANTS Zoe Gardner University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2 Part of the Agriculture Commons Recommended Citation Gardner, Zoe, "EFFECTS OF FERTILIZATION AND DRYING CONDITIONS ON THE QUALITY OF SELECTED CHINESE MEDICINAL PLANTS" (2019). Doctoral Dissertations. 1726. https://doi.org/10.7275/14298230 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/1726 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. EFFECTS OF FERTILIZATION AND DRYING CONDITIONS ON THE QUALITY OF SELECTED CHINESE MEDICINAL PLANTS A Dissertation Presented by ZOË E. GARDNER Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY SEPTEMBER 2019 Plant and Soil Sciences © Copyright by Zoë E. Gardner 2019 All Rights Reserved EFFECTS OF FERTILIZATION AND DRYING CONDITIONS ON THE QUALITY OF SELECTED CHINESE MEDICINAL PLANTS A Dissertation Presented by ZOË E. GARDNER Approved as to style and content by: ____________________________________ Lyle E. Craker, Chair ____________________________________ Masoud Hashemi, Member ____________________________________ Michael R. Sutherland, Member __________________________________ Wesley Autio, Department Head Plant and Soil Sciences ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am grateful to the incredible community of people that have helped in so many different ways to complete this research. The first thanks goes to my advisor and friend Lyle Craker for a wonderful 10 years of working together, for providing encouragement, challenge, support, training, and a generosity of spirit in furthering my academic career in so many ways over our years of working together. Thank also goes to my committee members Masoud Hashemi and Mike Sutherland who have asked question, answered questions, provided valuable insights, training, and support for this research. Colleagues and friends have made this research possible. So, I would like to express my gratitude to the following people: Cynthia Barstow for providing mentorship, friendship, encouragement, and a listening ear. Hussein Al-Amier for guidance, mentorship, and support along the way. We miss you. Your legacy lives on in all the students you educated and mentored. Jean Giblette for providing the inspiration for this work, having the vision of a domestic supply chain for Chinese medicinal herbs, and the tireless advocacy, organization, and education you’ve done to manifest this vision. Erik Erhardt for being a patient tutor of experimental design, data organization, and statistics and for helping me make sense of a field of knowledge that otherwise felt unapproachable. Kyle Bostrom, Neil Woodard, and the rest of the UMass Research Farm for providing resources and expertise to make the field research possible. Amanda Vickers and the technicians at the US Botanical Safety Laboratory for their partnership and support on the phytochemical analysis. iv Supportive visiting researchers and student colleagues who helped plant and maintain the field research plots: Maiko Inoue, Jun-Pill Baek, Ryan Rogan, and Deborah Becket. Joseph Betz of the Office of Dietary Supplements, NIH, for his encouragement of my graduate studies and assistance in identifying fellowship opportunities. To all my amazing friends who helped plant seeds, transplant seedlings, mulch research plots, who provided emotional and technical support and friendship during the journey of graduate school. To my family who encouraged me to follow and excel in my interests, however impractical they may have seemed at times. v ABSTRACT EFFECTS OF FERTILIZATION AND DRYING CONDITIONS ON THE QUALITY OF SELECTED CHINESE MEDICINAL PLANTS SEPTEMBER 2019 ZOË E. GARDNER, B.S., LESLEY UNIVERSITY M.S., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Lyle E. Craker Demand for Chinese medicinal herbs in the U.S. is increasing and American acupuncturists and farmers are interested in domestic production of these plants. Little is known about the feasibility of production of these species outside of China. Four species of herbs were selected for cultivation trials. The purposes of this research were to evaluate the feasibility of cultivation of these species in the northeastern United States, to develop basic agronomic data for each species, and to determine the effects of nitrogen fertilizer on plant growth, yield, and secondary metabolites. Agastache rugosa , Schizonepeta tenuifolia , Leonurus japonicus , and Leonurus sibiricus were grown in a randomized complete block design with 0, 100, or 200 kg/ha of nitrogen (N). At 100 kg/ha of N, a significant increase in yield of all species was observed as compared to the 0 kg/ha control. Yields of A. rugosa and both Leonurus species increased significantly again at 200 kg/ha of N as compared to 100 kg/ha, while the increase in yield between these two levels was slight for S. tenuifolia . Amendment with 100 or 200 kg/ha of N significantly increased concentration of the alkaloid leonurine in Leonurus plant material as compared to the untreated control. L. sibiricus had higher concentrations of leonurine at all levels of treatment than L. heterophyllus . At 200 kg/ha of N, L. sibiricus had leonurine levels that were similar to commercial samples produced in China. No significant effects of N on essential oil content of A. rugosa or S. tenuifolia were observed. Drying temperature significantly affected the vi quantity of essential oil in A. rugosa or S. tenuifolia, with significant losses of essential oil occurring at 60 and 71 ºC and retention of essential oil occurring at 38 and 49 ºC. This study demonstrated that the selected species may be produced in the northeastern United States and that amendment with N has a positive effect on plant yields and in some cases on the active compounds in the dried plant material. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iv ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF TABLES ...............................................................................................................x LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... xii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................1 1.1 Background ........................................................................................................1 1.2 Literature Review...............................................................................................2 1.2.1 Production and Market for TCM Herbs in the U.S. ............................2 1.2.2 Effects of Nitrogen on Secondary Metabolites in Plants ...................4 1.2.3 Drying Temperature ...........................................................................5 1.2.4 Species Investigated ............................................................................7 1.3 Figures..............................................................................................................12 2. YIELD AND EFFECTS OF ORGANIC NITROGEN FERTILIZER ON FIELD-GROWN CHINESE MEDICINAL PLANTS IN THE UNITED STATES .......................................................................................................................13 2.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................13 2.2 Materials and Methods .....................................................................................16 2.2.1 Field Cultivation Methods ................................................................16 2.2.2 Drying Methods ................................................................................18 2.2.3 Statistical Analysis ............................................................................18 2.3 Results ..............................................................................................................19 2.4 Discussion ........................................................................................................20 2.5 Tables and Figures ...........................................................................................22 3. EFFECTS OF ORGANIC NITROGEN FERTILIZER AND DRYING TEMPERATURE ON ESSENTIAL OIL YIELD .......................................................31 viii 3.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................31 3.2 Materials and Methods .....................................................................................33 3.2.1 Field Cultivation Methods ................................................................33 3.2.2 Harvest and Drying Methods ...........................................................34 3.2.3 Essential Oil Distillation ..................................................................35