Cultivation of an endangered and valuable tree species, Camellia grijsii
2002
Yuexia, Weng (The Chinese Academy of Forestry, Fuyang, Zhejiang, 311400 (China). Research Inst. of Subtropical Forestry)
The oil from Camellia grijsii (GRI) seeds can improve human serum lipid condition and delay aging. Further comparative studies of GRI, olive (OLV), C. oleifera seed oil (OLF)and olein on human embryo 2 BS cell cultures revealed the similar antisenile effects of GRI and OLV. The amount of lipid peroxidases (LPO) and the life span of cell cultures given OLV and GRI were greater than that of the OLF. The results agree with later clinical experiments, in which significant improvement of human serum LPO, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and blood viscosity were found among patients who consumed GRI as their sole cooking oil at 50 g/g for 40 days. The obvious benefits of these oils resulted in increased demands for GRI oil in the domestic and foreign markets. The oil yield from the seeds of wild C. grijsii is very low and fruiting occurs once in every 7-8 years. To address this problem, a project was initiated to continuously select superior mother trees. Also, the authors wanted to develop techniques for grafting scions of wild C. grijsii on the adult C. oleifera to test the comparative yield of clones and mating compatibility between different clones. The authors also wanted to establish a core gene bank of C. grijsii where variations in the characteristics of economic importance are observed. Based on the authors' results, 5 isolated "pair clones" orchards have been established in the "Lake of a Thousand Islands" region by using adult grafting techniques. Each orchard produces seeds of one parent - a cultivar and a certain cultivar must be paired with another cultivar to produce another "pair clones" orchard that is compatible for afforestation, thus gaining high yield. In year 2000, all of the orchards have fruited and some of the trees exhibited characteristics associated with superior cultivars. The superior cultivars could be identified in 2001 and planted in suitable area in subtropical regions for demonstration
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