Response of total phenols, flavonoids, minerals, and amino acids of four edible fern species to four shading treatments

Yanlin Wang; Shanshan Gao; Xingyuan He; Yan Li; Yue Zhang; Wei Chen

doi:10.7717/peerj.8354

Response of total phenols, flavonoids, minerals, and amino acids of four edible fern species to four shading treatments

PeerJ. 2020 Jan 13:8:e8354. doi: 10.7717/peerj.8354. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Yanlin Wang^#¹, Shanshan Gao^#¹, Xingyuan He^{1

2

3

4}, Yan Li^{1

4}, Yue Zhang^{1

4}, Wei Chen^{1

2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, Liaoning, China.
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, China.
⁴ Shenyang Arboretum, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Total phenols, flavonoids, minerals and amino acids content were investigated in leaves of four fern species grown under four shading treatments with different sunlight transmittance in 35% full sunlight (FS), 13% FS, 8% FS and 4% FS. The leaves of four fern species contain high levels of total phenols and flavonoids, abundant minerals and amino acids, and these all were strongly affected by transmittance. Total phenols and flavonoids content were significantly positively correlated with transmittance, while minerals and total amino acids content were significantly negatively correlated with transmittance, a finding that supports research into how higher light intensity can stimulate the synthesis of phenols and flavonoids, and proper shading can stimulate the accumulation of minerals and amino acids. Matteuccia struthiopteris (L.) Todaro (MS) had the highest total phenols content, Athyrium multidentatum (Doll.) Ching (AM) showed the highest total amino acids, total essential amino acids content, Osmunda cinnamomea (L) var. asiatica Fernald (OCA) exhibited the highest total non-essential amino acids and flavonoids content. Pteridium aquilinum (L.) Kuhn var. latiusculum (Desy.) Underw. ex Heller (PAL) exhibited the highest minerals content. This research can provide a scientific basis for the cultivation and management of those four fern species.

Keywords: Amino acids; Edible fern species; Flavonoids; Minerals; Shading; Total phenols.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Technology and Demonstration of Ecological Protection and Exploitation and Utilization of Biological Resources in Northeast Forest Region (2016YFC0500306), the Construction of China Botanical Garden Alliance, Key Project of Chinese Academy of Sciences (KFJ-3W-No1), the Chinese Academy of Sciences Science and Technology Resources Popularization Capacity Building (F16-191-5-00). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.