title: Variation of glycyrrhizin and liquiritin contents within a population of 5-year-old licorice (Glycyrrhiza uralensis) plants cultivated under the same conditions.
abstract: Cultivated licorice plants (Glycyrrhiza uralensis FISCH.) contain smaller amounts of the triterpene saponin glycyrrhizin than wild licorice plants. To resolve this problem and to breed strains with high-glycyrrhizin content we determined the glycyrrhizin content of 100 samples of G. uralensis that were propagated from seed and grown under the same conditions in the field for 5 years. There was a 10.2-fold variation in glycyrrhizin content among these plants, ranging from 0.46 to 4.67% (average 2.11±0.90%). There was also a wide variation in liquiritin content, ranging from 0.11 to 2.65% (average 1.00±0.49%). The glycyrrhizin content was positively correlated with that of liquiritin in the taproots (r(2)=0.5525). Our results indicate that there are various genetic strains for glycyrrhizin and liquiritin synthesis within a population of plants propagated from seed. The selected high-glycyrrhizin and liquiritin strains will be useful for licorice production and studies on biosynthetic analysis of glycyrrhizin and liquiritin.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, Japan. kojoma@hoku-iryo-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Mareshige
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kojoma
authors.forename: Shigeki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hayashi
authors.forename: Toshiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shibata
authors.forename: Yutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Haruo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sekizaki
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000379:methods; D001947:Breeding; D044950:Flavanones / Q000032:analysis*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005960:Glucosides / Q000032:analysis*; D029882:Glycyrrhiza uralensis / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D019695:Glycyrrhizic Acid / Q000032:analysis*; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000737:chemistry; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D044950:Flavanones; D005960:Glucosides; D019695:Glycyrrhizic Acid; C512196:liquiritin