Title: EVALUATION OF ACCESSIONS OF BERGENIA SPECIES FOR HIGH ARBUTIN CONTENT AND HIGH LEAF YIELD
Abstract: Thirty accessions of Bergenia sp. collected from private gardens around Mikkeli, South-Finland were evaluated under field conditions for leaf biomass potential and arbutin content of dry leaf yield. The experiment was carried out in MTT Agrifood Research Finland Mikkeli (61°44'N, 27°18E) during 2005-2007. Ten accessions were Bergenia crassifolia, 14 were Bergenia cordifolia and 6 were hybrids of B. crassifolia × B. cordifolia. The arbutin content of the B. cordifolia accessions was much lower (4.9-7.2%), than that of the B. crassifolia or hybrid accessions (6.2-11.28%). 4 accessions of B. crassifolia and 1 hybrid accession showed high contents of arbutin (11.5-13.3%) and were chosen for mass propagation. The accessions with high arbutin contents produced quite high leaf yields, 1.5-2.8 kg/m. The fresh leaf yield of the Bergenia accessions was increased by the age of the plants. The average leaf yield in the first year was 0.865 kg/m raw, which was doubled (1.64 kg/m) in the 2 nd year. The yield of 3-year-old plants, which had not been harvested in 2006, was the highest, 2.56 kg/m. The selected accessions have been included into the gene collection of MTT Mikkeli and the propagation materials of the best accessions have been transferred to special plant growers for contract production.
Publication Year: 2010
Publication Date: 2010-02-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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