COMPARATIVE STUDIES ON THE ACTIVE INGREDIENTS CONTENTS IN NATURAL AND CULTIVATED PORIA COCOS

Poria cocos (Schw.) Wolf is a well-known traditional Chinese herbal medicine that has been used as diuretic, sedative and tonic drug. However, the natural P. cocos forms sclerotia on the roots of cedar or pine, its productivity is limited. Therefore, it is imperative to find a cultivated P. cocos substitute for the natural one. A new cultivated P. cocos strain numbered 28 was selected in the State Key Laboratory of Sub-health Intervention Technology. In this study, antagonistic effect was done to test the relationship between P. cocos 28 and a natural strain (numbered 578). The molecular marker SRAP (Sequences-related Amplified Polymorphism) amplification and cloning, sequencing of 2 ORFs (Open Reading Frame) fragments were applied to analyze their genetic diversity. The phenol-sulfuric acid procedure, spectrophotometry and amino acid standard analysis methods were used to determine the concentration of active ingredients - polysaccharide, triterpene and amino acid, respectively. There was an obscurely shaped line in the antagonistic effect and none of 132 SRAP primer combinations turned out to be polymorphic. Sequencing of 2 ORFs fragments showed that there were only 59 mutant sites with 25 conversion, 22 transversion and 12 insertion or deletion. No significant difference was detected in the contents of active ingredients between P. cocos 28 and 578. Therefore, the cultivated P. cocos 28 could be the alternative strain of natural P. cocos 578. This study indicated that antagonistic effect and SRAP marker could be effective methods to analyze the relationship of P. cocos and would be useful in selection of high-yield cultivation of P. cocos.