Source: GAIA HERBS, INC. submitted to NRP
DEVELOPING MEDICINALLY USED ECHINACEA CULTIVARS BY INTRA- AND INTER-SPECIES HYBRIDIZATION
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
SMALL BUSINESS GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0199525
Grant No.
2004-33610-14336
Cumulative Award Amt.
(N/A)
Proposal No.
2004-00056
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
May 15, 2004
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2005
Grant Year
2004
Program Code
[8.2]- (N/A)
Recipient Organization
GAIA HERBS, INC.
108 ISLAND FORD RD.
BREVARD,NC 28712
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Cultivation of Echinacea has gained worldwide interest in recent years due to its non-specific immunomodulotary activity in humans. It was the top-selling medicinal herb in 2001 and has remained among the top five best-selling herbs for over five years. However, the Echinacea species has not been genetically improved for medicinal use. Current cultivated types of Echinacea were originated from pooled, non-selected seeds from wild sources and therefore are less productive and low in quality. The purpose of this study is to develop Echinacea cultivars which have high biomass yield and high levels of boactive constituents.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
20422201080100%
Knowledge Area
204 - Plant Product Quality and Utility (Preharvest);

Subject Of Investigation
2220 - Medicinal crops, non-narcotic;

Field Of Science
1080 - Genetics;
Goals / Objectives
Cultivation of Echinacea has gained worldwide interest in recent years due to its non-specific immunomodulotary activity in humans. It was the top-selling medicinal herb in 2001 and has remained among the top five best-selling herbs for over five years. However, the Echinacea species has not been genetically improved for medicinal use. Current cultivated types of Echinacea were originated from pooled, non-selected seeds from wild sources. This inevitably introduces variation among and within cultivated populations in plant growth and productivity, and there is little chance for such types to produce high quality and yield, instead adding to prominent difficulties cultivating, for example, E. angustifolia. This proposed research will develop cultivars in the two prevalent Echinacea species, E. angustifolia and E. purpurea, by intra- and inter-species hybridization. Synthetic cultivars that produce high quality and yield will be developed by open-pollinated polycross among selected parents that have excellent growth characteristics and high levels of bioactive compounds. The key tasks in Phase 1 will be parental plant selection, propagation, hybridization and establishment of field test experiments.
Project Methods
We will phenotypically select superior plants (based on growth vigor, growth habit, uniformity, disease resistance) from varied sources of the two Echinacea species. The selected plants will be screened chemically and the individuals containing high bioactive constituents will be selected. Further selections will be through progeny performance. The superior selections will be cloned by conventional and tissue culture methods to increase the amount of plants and will be used as parents in developing cultivars for intraspecific and interspecific improvement. Synthetic cultivars will be developed in this project. Multi-location (five) tests will be used to select cultivars.

Progress 05/15/04 to 08/31/05

Outputs
This research project is to develop medicinally used cultivars in the two prevalent Echinacea species, E. angustifolia and E. purpurea, by intra- and inter-species hybridization. Synthetic cultivars that produce high quality and yield in both biomass and bioactive phytochemicals will be developed by open-pollinated polycross among selected parents that have excellent growth characteristics and high levels of bioactive compounds. The key tasks in Phase I are parental plant selection, hybridization, propagation, and establishment of field test experiments. We have conducted all the proposed research in Phase I. The results obtained so far indicate that we have reached our goals. The parents we selected contain more than 1.5 times of the marker biochemical alkamides than the commercial average (~8mg/g, dry root) for both E. angustifolia and E. purpurea. For the E. purpurea selections, we chose plants also with higher concentrations of cichoric acid. The APP [E. angustifolia crossing with E. purpurea (a natural hybrid)] crossing with E. purpurea and reciprocal selections combine the chemical profiles [especially the major alkamides (8/9 in E. angustifolia and 2/3 in E. purpurea)] and the root types of both parents, and are expected to produce root yields higher than in E. angustifolia and E. purpurea. The selections from the APP population and the natural hybrids will enable us to develop improved interspecific genotypes one year ahead of schedule for interspecific breeding. Polycrosses have been conducted among the selected parents. The seeds obtained from the cross have been used in establishment of field progeny and location test experiments. Progeny test is conducting on Gaia Herbs Farm in North Carolina. The location test has been established in four States: Iowa, Kansas, North Carolina, and North Dakota. The micropropagation is proceeding successfully. Experiments of establishment of the propagated plants in potting medium are on going. We are refining our growth regulator combinations to efficiently propagate the different genotypes.

Impacts
The Phase I research is to provide a foundation for the phase II project to genetically improve Echinacea plants for field production in both biomass and bioactive phytochemicals. The results obtained from Phase I research have no direct application in Echinacea field production and therefore no economic value has been generated. However, the foundation work successfully conducted in the Phase I research will play a critical role for us to reach our final goal to develop improved cultivars in Echinacea for medicinal use. We are currently conducting the Phase II research of this project.

Publications

  • Qu, L., X. Wang, Y. Chen, R. Scalzo, M. Widrlechner, J. Davis, and J. Hancock. 2005. Commercial seed lots exhibit reduced seed dormancy in comparison to wild Seed Lots of Echinacea purpurea. HortScience (October issue, in press). Qu, L., Y. Chen, X. Wang, R. Scalzo, and J. Davis. 2005. Patterns of variation in alkamides and cichoric acid in roots and aboveground parts of Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench. HortScience 40: 1239-1242.