Quantitative determination of multiple effective components in a given plant usually requires a very large amount of authentic natural products. In this study, we proposed a rapid and non-destructive method for the simultaneous determination of echinacoside, verbascoside, mannitol, sucrose, glucose and fructose in Cistanche tubulosa by near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Near infrared diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) were conducted on 116 batches of C. tubulosa samples. The DRS data were processed using standard normal variety (SNV) and multiplicative scatter correction (MSC) methods. Partial least squares regression (PLSR) was utilized to build calibration models for components-of-interest in C. tubulosa. All models were then assessed by calculating the root mean square error of calibration (RMSEC), correlation coefficient of calibration (r). The r values of all six calibration models were determined to be greater than 0.94, suggesting each model is reliable. Therefore, the quantitative NIR models reported in this study can be qualified to accurately quantify the contents of six medicinal components in C. tubulosa.

Cistanche tubulosa is a valuable herbal remedy in China. In this study, we aimed to identify and analyze how bioactive compounds are affected by planting region and soil properties. Plant and soil samples in desert and alkaline-saline environments were collected, and measurements were obtained for (i) dry weight and medicinal compounds of plant samples and (ii) soil salinity and pH of soil samples. The effect of soil salinity on the medicinal compounds revealed that the dry weight per plant of C. tubulosa was relatively high in low salinity soil. However, under high salinity conditions, echinacoside and verbascoside contents increased. No visible effects of individual soil pH were found on dry weight and echinacoside, verbascoside, and mannitol contents. Regarding the interaction between soil salinity and pH, only mannitol content showed a significant difference. The mannitol content was unaffected by pH in the presence of slight salinity conditions; meanwhile, in severe salinity conditions, high pH dramatically lowered the mannitol content. In loam with saline soil, a lower dry weight per plant was observed but the planting density was higher. The good water and fertilizer retention abilities of loam can lead to a higher yield per unit area. To improve yield and quality simultaneously in the introduction regions, the crucial points for cultivation techniques of C. tubulosa in seashore saline land include a high seed dosage of C. tubulosa and moderate soil salinity.

The Na ⁺ /H⁺ antiporter (NHX) gene family plays a central role in maintaining cellular ion homeostasis and responding to abiotic stress in plants. However, the systematic identification and functional characterization of this gene family in woody plants of the genus Forsythia remain unexplored. To address this, genome-wide identification and systematic comparative analysis of the NHX gene family were performed in three Forsythia species, Forsythia suspensa , F. viridissima , and F. ovata , with a focus on elucidating F. suspensa NHX gene expression under various types of stress: salt, drought (PEG-simulated), and exogenous abscisic acid (ABA). In total, 18 NHX members were identified and were classified into three subclasses based on phylogenetic analysis, resulting in 12 vacuolar membrane-localized ‘Vac’-class members, four plasma-membrane-localized ‘PM’-class members, and two endosomal system-localized ‘Endo’-class members. Those proteins within the same evolutionary clade exhibit highly conserved structural features in terms of motif arrangement and gene structure. Synteny analysis identified whole-genome or segmental duplication as the primary driving force for the expansion of this family, with all of the duplicated gene pairs having undergone strong purifying selection. Based on interspecies synteny analysis, F. suspensa and F. viridissima exhibited the highest degree of NHX gene family homology. Expression analysis revealed that the F. suspensa NHX gene family exhibits distinct and tissue-specific responses to drought, salt, and exogenous ABA stress. Among the NHX members, FsNHX3 and FsNHX6 exhibited the most pronounced and sustained transcriptional upregulation across the three stress treatments, suggesting their potential involvement in stress response. These findings provide valuable insights for the further exploration of the functions and molecular mechanisms of the NHX gene family in Forsythia under salt and drought stress, offering valuable candidate genetic resources for breeding Forsythia varieties with enhanced tolerance to salinity and dehydration.

Patrinia monandra C. B. Clarke is traditionally used for the treatment of inflammation, typhoid fever, injuries due to falls, abdominal pain, malaria, and acute appendicitis ulcers in China and Korea. In this study, the complete chloroplast genome of P. monandra was sequenced using the Illumina HiSeq X-Ten platform. It had a circular shape and a length of 158,940 bp, with 38.51% GC content. It contained a large single-copy region of 87,641 bp, a small single-copy region of 12,807 bp, and two inverted repeat regions of 29,246 bp. In total, 128 different genes, including 83 protein-coding genes, 37 distinct tRNA genes, and eight rRNA genes, were identified. Maximum-likelihood phylogenomic analysis showed that P. monandra is closely related to Patrinia scabiosifolia and Patrinia villosa in the Valerianaceae family. There were 4535 variable sites, 157,354 conserved sites, and 3085 singleton sites in the six Patrinia chloroplast genomes.