Distribution patterns of the contents of five active components in taproot and stolon of Glycyrrhiza uralensis.

Wild or cultivated Glycyrrhiza uralensis FISCHER (G. uralensis) are the main source of licorice, and they contain the similar compounds, such as the triterpenoid saponins and flavonoids, but above two kinds of the components contents are low level in the cultivated licorice. To produce the high quality cultivated licorices, researchers studied the affecting factors about the compounds producing in the plant of licorice, and then found that the growth years, genetic differences and water deficit are all the important factors. In this paper, we found that there were different distribution patterns of the main five active components (FAC) including glycyrrhizin, liquiritin, isoliquiritin, liquiritigenin and isoliquiritigenin in the taproot and stolon of G. uralensis and maybe they are also important influence factors to the FAC contents of the licorices. In wild G. uralensis, the contents of FAC tended to be lower in the younger parts of the stolon, and in the cultivated G. uralensis taproot, the contents of glycyrrhizin, liquiritin and isoliquiritin tended to increase from top to end, contrary to the contents of liquiritigenin and isoliquiritigenin, which increased first and then decreased. Our results will contribute to the analyses of factors which influence the quality of licorice, and provide some reference for cultivating high quality licorices for herbal medicine.