Medicinal Plant Research 2024, Vol.14, No.6, 345-357 http://hortherbpublisher.com/index.php/mpr 345 Review Article Open Access Screening of Disease and Pest Resistant Hangbaiju (Chrysanthemum morifolium) Varieties and Their Application Prospects in Green Cultivation Jianli Lu1, Chuchu Liu2 1 Traditional Chinese Medicine Research Center, Cuixi Academy of Biotechnology, Zhuji, 311800, China 2 Institute of Life Sciences, Jiyang Colloge of Zhejiang A&F University, Zhuji, 311800, Zhejiang, China Corresponding author: chuchu.liu@jicat.org Medicinal Plant Research, 2024, Vol.14, No.6 doi: 10.5376/mpr.2024.14.0029 Received: 30 Oct., 2024 Accepted: 02 Dec., 2024 Published: 18 Dec., 2024 Copyright © 2024 Lu and Liu, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Preferred citation for this article: Lu J.L., and Liu C.C., 2024, Screening of disease and pest resistant Hangbaiju (Chrysanthemum morifolium) varieties and their application prospects in green cultivation, Medicinal Plant Research, 14(6): 345-357 (doi: 10.5376/mpr.2024.14.0029) Abstract Hangbaiju (Chrysanthemum morifolium) is popular among consumers because of its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and liver-protecting effects, and it has both medicinal and ornamental value. With the expansion of planting scale, pests and diseases have become the main obstacles affecting yield and quality. Although chemical pesticides are still the main means of prevention and control, there are problems such as increased resistance and environmental pollution. In order to promote green planting, this study screened out a number of resistant chrysanthemum varieties, and combined field natural infection experimental analysis, artificial inoculation experiments and molecular marker analysis to clarify the role of resistance genes, like CmWD40 and CmWRKY8-1 in the defense mechanism. The results showed that, these varieties can effectively reduce the incidence of pests and diseases while maintaining yield and quality, and adapt to the green prevention and control system. This study provides strong germplasm support and theoretical basis for the sustainable cultivation of Hangbaiju, and helps its promotion and application in ecological agriculture and organic certification paths. Keywords Hangbaiju (Chrysanthemum morifolium); Disease and insect resistance; Green cultivation; Molecular markers; Resistance screening; Sustainable agriculture 1 Introduction Hangbaiju (Chrysanthemum morifolium) plays an important role in both traditional Chinese medicine and horticulture. It can be used as medicine, make tea, decorate courtyards, or be exported as cut flowers. It is a common choice for both medicine and food and garden landscape in many places (Wang et al., 2018; 2021). In particular, the anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and liver-protecting effects of chrysanthemum have always made it useful in health products and traditional formulas (Xu et al., 2021; Xia et al., 2023). In recent years, with the increase in people's demand for health and the market's preference for ornamental flowers, the planting area of chrysanthemum has expanded rapidly and the degree of commercialization has continued to deepen. But, when planting areas get bigger, problems with the soil usually show up too. Farmers often run into things like tired soil, trouble from growing the same crop over and over, and pests or diseases that are hard to deal with(Chen et al., 2018; Li et al., 2024a). Among the diseases, wilt and black spot are the most common. Wilt is caused by Fusarium oxysporum, and black spot comes fromAlternaria alternata. These diseases not only hurt the plants and cut down the harvest, but also lower the quality of the medicine they’re used for (Xu et al., 2021; Zhang et al., 2019). As for pests, aphids and the larvae of Spodoptera litura are the main ones that attack Hangbaiju. When there’s an outbreak, farmers might lose part of their crop, or in bad cases, all of it (Li et al., 2024a; Zhang et al., 2025). At present, the most commonly used pesticides are chemical pesticides, which are effective quickly, but of course there are many problems. On the one hand, the resistance of pests and diseases is increasing; on the other hand, the problem of chemical residues and damage to the environment has also attracted more and more attention (Chen et al., 2018). Long-term reliance on pesticides will not only pollute the land and increase its burden, but also affect the stability of the medicinal quality of Hangbaiju, and may even threaten the health of consumers (Burketová et al., 2015).
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