Carpesium (Asteraceae) is a genus that contains many plant species with important medicinal values. However, the lack of chloroplast genome research of this genus has greatly hindered the study of its molecular evolution and phylogenetic relationship. This study used the Illumina sequencing platform to sequence three medicinal plants of the Carpesium genus: Carpesium abrotanoides, Carpesium cernuum, and Carpesium faberi, obtaining three complete chloroplast genome sequences after assembly and annotation. It was revealed that the three chloroplast genomes were typical quadripartite structures with lengths of 151,389 bp (C. abrotanoides), 151,278 bp (C. cernuum), and 151,250 bp (C. faberi), respectively. A total of 114 different genes were annotated, including 80 protein-coding genes, 30 tRNA genes, and 4 rRNA genes. Abundant SSR loci were detected in all three chloroplast genomes, with most composed of A/T. The expansion and contraction of the IR region indicate that the boundary regions of IR/SC are relatively conserved for the three species. Using C. abrotanoides as a reference, most of the non-coding regions of the chloroplast genomes were significantly different among the three species. Five different mutation hot spots (trnC-GCA-petN, psaI, petA-psbJ, ndhF, ycf1) with high nucleotide variability (Pi) can serve as potential DNA barcodes of Carpesium species. Additionally, phylogenetic evolution analysis of the three species suggests that C. cernuum has a closer genetic relationship to C. faberi than C. abrotanoides. Simultaneously, Carpesium is a monophyletic group closely related to the genus Inula. Complete chloroplast genomes of Carpesium species can help study the evolutionary and phylogenetic relationships and are expected to provide genetic marker assistance to identify Carpesium species.

Blumea balsamifera (L.) DC., a medicinal plant with high economic value in the Asteraceae family, is widely distributed in China and Southeast Asia. However, studies on the population structure or phylogenetic relationships with other related species are rare owing to the lack of genome information. In this study, through high-throughput sequencing, we found that the chloroplast genome of B. balsamifera was 151,170 bp in length, with a pair of inverted repeat regions (IRa and IRb) comprising 24,982 bp, a large single-copy (LSC) region comprising 82,740 bp, and a small single-copy (SSC) region comprising 18,466 bp. A total of 130 genes were identified in the chloroplast genome of B. balsamifera, including 85 protein-coding, 37 transfer RNA, and 8 ribosomal RNA genes; furthermore, sequence analysis identified 53 simple sequence repeats. Whole chloroplast genome comparison indicated that the inverted regions (IR) were more conserved than large single-copy and SSC regions. Phylogenetic analysis showed that B. balsamifera is closely related to Pluchea indica. Conclusively, the chloroplast genome of B. balsamifera was helpful for species identification and analysis of the genetic diversity and evolution in the genus Blumea and family Asteraceae.

A new flavonol glycoside named Sabiapside A (1), along with four known compounds, quercetin-3-O-gentiobioside (2), camellianoside (3), isobariclisin-3-O- rutinoside (4), tsubakioside A (5), was isolated from Sabia parviflora. Their structures were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic analysis including MS, UV, IR and NMR data. The antioxidant activities of these glycosides evaluated by ABTS⁺ and DPPH radical scavenging reaction was higher than that of vitamin C used as the reference antioxidant.