Applying biofertilizers can increase growth of Panax ginseng

Researchers from the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences analyzed the changes in soil microbial communities under biofertilizer treatment and evaluated the effects of biofertilizers on potentially harmful taxa to Panax ginseng. The results of their study were published in the journal Chinese Medicine.

• P. ginseng is widely used as a functional food and traditional Chinese medicine.
• To satisfy both market supply and medication safety, biofertilizers are used to stimulate the growth and production of P. ginseng.
• To analyze the microbial community in soils treated with biofertilizers during the development of P. ginseng, the researchers used high-throughput sequencing and quantitative polymerase chain reaction.
• They detected the ginsenoside content of P. ginseng using high-performance liquid chromatography and evaluated the effects of biofertilizer application.
• The researchers reported that the incidence rate of P. ginseng root rot significantly declined by 40.3-47.3 percent after the application of disease-biocontrol biofertilizers.
• Compared with untreated soils, soils treated with 3.0–4.5 milliter per kilogram (mL/kg) of disease-biocontrol biofertilizers showed increasing trends in bacterial diversity.
• Further analysis revealed that the bacterial communities were changed by biofertilizers depending on their concentration.
• The researchers found that the relative abundance of potentially beneficial bacterial agents (Bacillus, Burkholderia, Rhizobium, Streptomyces and Mycobacterium) significantly increased in the biofertilizer-treated soils.
• Treated soils also a had low abundance of Fusarium species compared with the untreated soils.
• Meanwhile, biofertilizer treatment enhanced P. ginseng yield by 17-19.1 percent and improved their ginsenoside (Rg1 and Rb1) content.

Based on these results, the researchers concluded that the application of biofertilizers can improve P. ginseng yield and help promote the abundance of beneficial soil bacteria.

Read the full article at this link.

Journal Reference:

Dong L, Li Y, Xu J, Yang J, Wei G, Shen L, Ding W, Chen S. BIOFERTILIZERS REGULATE THE SOIL MICROBIAL COMMUNITY AND ENHANCE PANAX GINSENG YIELDS. Chinese Medicine. 23 May 2019;14(1). DOI: 10.1186/s13020-019-0241-1