Trait variances of Cornus officinalis fruit from Henan and Zhejiang major producing areas

Key words: 
• cash forestry /
• Cornus officinalis /
• fruit trait /
• medicinal ingredient /
• intra-specific variation /
• producing area difference

Abstract: To identify the variance within and between two major producing areas of Cornus officinalis and to lay a theoretical foundation for selection of elite varieties，traits and effective medicinal ingredients from morphologically ripe fruit of individual trees propagated by seeding from Henan and Zhejiang Provinces were collected. Then the following indexes were measured：fruit weight of a single tree；cross-sectional and vertical diameters of a fruit；percentage of fresh fruit flesh；moisture content；content of soluble solid substances；and the content of ursolic acid，oleanolic acid，and loganin. Data showed that：1） among individual trees in the same production area a certain difference in fruit traits and effective medicinal ingredients existed with all indexes showing a similarity within a production area. Also，2） a strong difference between production areas for fruit traits and loganin was found，but no differences for ursolic and oleanolic acids. Additionally，strong intra-specific variance in single fruit weight，soluble solid substance content，and the content of ursolic acid，oleanolic acid，and loganin were found with the average weight of a single fruit from Zhejiang being 1.68 times greater than Henan and an extreme value of 2.52 times. Thus，as an important indicator for future selective breeding，content of ursolic acid，oleanolic acid，and loganin could be considered with selective breeding for yield utilizing the Zhejiang source.［Ch，2 fig. 3 tab. 9 ref.］