Spatial variations of ginsenosides in Panax ginseng and their impact factors

Aims This study aimed to reveal how ginsenosides content in Panax ginseng varied spatially and the regulating roles of environmental factors.Methods Twenty eight P. ginseng samples were collected from Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces, and nine kinds of ginsenosides content in P. ginseng were measured. The one-way ANOVA was used to evaluate their spatial variations. The method of UPLC was employed to determine the content of nine kinds of ginsenosides in P. ginseng. The principal component analysis (PCA), correlation analysis (CA) and redundancy analysis (RDA) were used to analyze the relationship between ginsenosides content and ecological factors (including climate and soil factors).Important findings The results showed that the content of ginsenosides in P. ginseng from Jilin and Liaoning was similar, and higher than that in Heilongjiang. Precipitation was the most important climate factor affecting the contents of ginsenosides. High temperature and strong sunshine limited the content of ginsenosides. The analysis on ginsenosides and soil factors indicated that soil nitrogen content, Fe, K, organic matter, pH value, Mn, P, Zn all had significant influences on the content of ginsenosides.