Botanical and chemical evaluation of Atractylodes lancea plants propagated in vitro and by division of the rhizome.

A single plant of Atractylodes lancea, a perennial herb of Asteraceae, was propagated in vitro by shoot culture from floral buds and shoot tips. The reproduced plants were then grown under field conditions for up to four years and their botanical and chemical characteristics were compared to those of control plants that were propagated by dividing the rhizome of the parent plant. The first-year-plants of the micropropagated plants were scanty, but in the second year they were comparable to the control in most botanical features. On the other hand, the contents of two sesquiterpenes (hinesol and β-eudesmol) and a polyacetylenic compound (atractylodin) in the rhizome of the micropropagated plants remained low for the first two or three years of cultivation and at the third or fourth year they reached to the same level as that of the control. Accordingly micropropagation yields clonal plants of A. lancea comparable to those obtained by conventional propagation methods within three or four years of cultivation.