Practical skills of selecting and purchasing seeds and seedlings of medicinal materials

In the process of planting traditional Chinese medicine, fake and shoddy seeds and seedlings are one of the most harmful commodities in the rural means of production market. Drug farmers often choose the wrong seeds and plant the wrong medicinal materials because of the lack of knowledge to distinguish the quality of seeds and seedlings, as well as the problems existing in seed supervision and technical identification. The unqualified medicinal materials not only bring losses to the producers, but also cause serious clinical consequences because of low efficiency, ineffectiveness and even toxicity. How to select Chinese herbal medicines?

"the plan for the year lies in spring." At present, it is almost spring ploughing season, and many medicine farmers have already been busy, making active preparations for the cultivation of medicinal materials in the new year. This paper introduces some practical skills of selecting and purchasing seeds and seedlings of traditional Chinese medicine, which can be used as a reference for medicine farmers.

Select varieties according to information

"when little is a treasure, often it is a root grass" is a metaphor for the benefits and risks that Chinese medicine farmers can bring to the cultivation of traditional Chinese medicine. Only by mastering the market situation and selecting good planting varieties, can we obtain the planting benefit of traditional Chinese medicine. In order to obtain accurate information, we must first pay attention to identifying the authenticity of advertisements and do not be deceived by false advertisements. Secondly, most drug farmers like to plant varieties with higher prices on the market for a time, often using the high-priced varieties of last year as a reference and decision-making basis for seed selection in the coming year. How can we get true and reliable information timely and accurately? Information should be collected from the following aspects: ①-related newspapers, magazines and professional books; ② medicine market; ③ medicine origin; ④ government competent departments and relevant statistical departments; ⑤ border trade import and export department; ⑥ scientific research department; ⑦ insiders and industry experts; (8) professional website of traditional Chinese medicine.

If we pay close attention to the changes in the prices of Chinese medicinal materials, comprehensively analyze the authoritative information collected, approve the facts, remove the rough and extract the essence, identify the fake things, and retain the real things, we will find the varieties and opportunities with good benefits in planting traditional Chinese medicinal materials, so as to have a clear target and get good benefits.

Select varieties according to local conditions

At present, there are many seeds of medicinal materials, which belong to different families and genera and different species, and there are different varieties of the same species, and different varieties of medicinal materials adapt to different environments. How to choose a suitable variety from many varieties to plant? First of all, it is necessary to consider whether the variety is suitable for local climatic conditions, soil conditions, irrigation and drainage conditions, as well as other special requirements of growth habits. It is necessary to select varieties suitable for local cultivation and develop production in accordance with local conditions. Interplanting should be arranged reasonably according to the growth habits of different traditional Chinese medicine in order to make full and rational use of land and improve economic effect. Such as Tiannanxing and Pinellia ternata, the border can be intercropped with corn, pepper, sesame, etc.; Scutellaria baicalensis can be planted between rows of Eucommia ulmoides and ginkgo biloba. Salvia miltiorrhiza has a long seedling stage and can be interplanted with high-stem crops such as early corn on the border. Hillsides and hills can be afforested with Eucommia ulmoides, Cornus officinalis and Evodia rutaecarpa, which not only afforest the barren mountains, but also make medicine farmers rich.

Find out the propagation mode of medicinal plants

The propagation methods of traditional Chinese medicine can usually be divided into two categories: one is seed reproduction, and the other is the use of plant roots, stems, leaves and other vegetative organs for reproduction. Such as chrysanthemum, saffron, salvia miltiorrhiza, Radix scrophulariae, Radix Rehmanniae, Pinellia ternata, Tiannanxing, honeysuckle, prince ginseng, peony, Ophiopogon, Fritillaria, yam, lily, Polygonatum odoratum and other medicinal materials, asexual reproduction is often used in production. In the production of this kind of medicinal materials, there will not be much problem with the authenticity of the seedlings. We should mainly pay attention to whether there are rotten seedlings in the size of the seedlings and whether they have the pest problem of quarantine stipulated by the state. It is very important to master the mode of reproduction of all kinds of medicinal materials. For example, some people use bag recycling as bait to sell saffron "seeds." in fact, crocuses are propagated with bulbs, and it is not known what the seeds are.

Know the period of validity of the seed

The preservation life of many medicinal seeds is very short, and the germination rate of seeds beyond the age is very low. In order to make exorbitant profits, some of the medicinal seeds sold by some lawbreakers in the seed market are old seeds that do not have the ability to germinate or have a low germination rate, and some are hybrids that deliberately mix new and old seeds. The results of many experiments show that when the seed moisture is reduced by 1% in the range of 5% 14%, the seed life can be doubled, but a small number of seeds such as Asarum, Coptis chinensis and Child ginseng are not resistant to dry storage and should be stored in wet storage. There are other southern medicines such as betel nut, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, incense and so on. Different species of medicinal plants have different seed germination years, which is related to their own genetic characters and storage conditions. The germination time of most medicinal seeds is 2 ~ 4 years, such as burdock, Coix seed, Platycodon grandiflorum, safflower and so on.

In the production of medicinal materials, special attention should be paid to those seeds with short period of validity, such as Codonopsis pilosula, Atractylodes macrocephala, Fructus kansui, Angelica sinensis, Radix Glehniae, Radix angelicae Dahuricae and Bupleurum Bupleurum. Seeds harvested must be sown in the spring and summer of the same year or the following year. In general, seeds basically lose their ability to germinate every other year. In addition, when purchasing seeds, we should pay attention to observe the appearance of the seeds, the seeds of that year are shiny, shiny and fragrant, while the seeds of the next year are gray and moldy.

Understand the method of seed storage

Some medicinal seeds, although new seeds, but if the seed storage technology is not correct, there will still be low seed germination rate or non-germination phenomenon. For example, the seed coat of andrographis paniculata has a layer of wax and impermeable, which needs to be soaked in warm water after friction; the seeds of Radix Astragali and Glycyrrhiza uralensis can be hard, and the germination rate can be increased by friction and soaking; more attention should be paid to some seeds with a long dormant period. such as peony, Coptis chinensis, American ginseng, yew and so on can be treated with low temperature sand storage.

Understand the quality of seeds and seedlings

After the planting variety is determined, excellent seeds and seedlings should be selected and purchased. At present, most of the seeds sold in the market are still reserved for farmers themselves. For example, Platycodon grandiflorum, Platycodon grandiflorum seeds have purple flowers and white flowers, now the purple flower variety is the best, and Platycodon grandiflorum needs to grow for more than two years.

Provenance is fundamental, good varieties can have stable yield, high yield and bad varieties can have no harvest. The seed species with good quality are correct, pure and consistent, full and complete, disease-free, insect-free and weed-free, high germination rate and vigor, strong resistance and resistance to diseases and insect pests. The quality of seeds is related to whether the seeds are suitable for sowing and the amount of sowing. When purchasing medicinal seeds and seedlings, the quality identification of medicinal seeds must be done in advance, the main contents are: dry grain weight (or 100 large seeds weight), purity, moisture content, composition odor and germination rate and so on. If it does not meet the standard, it means that the seed is not well developed and can not be used as sowing material. At the same time, the seed quarantine department should be quarantined when purchasing and transporting, and understand the incidence of the producing area and the health of seeds and seedlings, so as to prevent the irremediable losses caused by seeds and seedlings with diseases and insect pests, so as to improve the economic benefits of medicinal materials planting.