A Study on the Antioxidant Activity and Phenolic Compound Content of Cnidium officinale Makino Cultivated in a Temperature and Carbon Dioxide-Controlled Environment

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the growth parameters and antioxidant activity of Cnidium officinale under controlled temperature and carbon dioxide levels during the cultivation period. The plants were cultivated for four months, each group being set at the average temperature of the cultivation area +1.8°C/445ppm(SSP1), +3.6°C/872ppm(SSP3), and +4.4°C/1,142ppm(SSP5), respectively. During the cultivation period, the growth, Top/Root ratio, and leaf weight ratio(LWR) of C. officinale slightly decreased in SSP3 and SSP5 compared to SSP1, while the root weight ratio(RWR) increased. The antioxidant activity and related phenolic compound content in the aerial parts of C. officinale increased proportionally with temperature and CO2 concentration. However, an adverse effect was observed in the high-concentration SSP5 group. Conversely, in the roots, the SSP5 group exhibited the highest antioxidant activity. This study suggests that it can be utilized as fundamental data necessary for understanding the correlation between environmental conditions and the growth as well as physiological activities of medicinal plants.