Bioscience Evidence 2026, Vol.16, No.4, 277-290 http://bioscipublisher.com/index.php/be 286 Continuous cultivation altered both the soil bacterial community and the endophytic bacterial community of A. macrocephala, while increasing the risk of root rot. The abundance of several beneficial bacteria declined, whereas bacterial groups associated with disease became more abundant. Soil organic matter and the availability of some nutrients also decreased after continuous cropping. Beneficial genera such as Bacillus and Novosphingobium were reduced, while disease-associated genera including Pseudomonas and Ralstonia increased. The combined effects of continuous cropping and root rot further suppressed plant growth. After a fallow period, soil fertility and microbial community composition gradually recovered, and soil that had remained fallow for two years became similar to that of land where A. macrocephalahad never been cultivated. Growth duration is another important factor affecting medicinal quality. Cui et al. (2025) compared the rhizome morphology and chemical composition of 1-, 2-, 3-, 5-, and 10-year-old A. macrocephala plants. The 1- to 3-year-old plants were collected from Xinchang, Zhejiang Province, whereas the 5- and 10-year-old plants were collected from Taizhou, Zhejiang Province. Both sampling sites are located within the Tiantai Mountain region, where plants grew on yellow forest soils under hillside woodland conditions with annual rainfall of approximately 1 300-1 600 mm. All samples were harvested on October 20, 2023. Plants were established by direct seeding, and rhizome weight, length, internal structure, and bioactive compounds were compared among different growth durations. As growth duration increased, rhizome weight and length also increased. The upper parts of the rhizomes became more slender in the 5- and 10-year-old plants, producing the characteristic "crane neck" morphology that is traditionally regarded as a feature of high-quality A. macrocephala. Older plants also accumulated higher levels of atractylenolide I, atractylon, chlorogenic acid, and several other bioactive compounds (Figure 4). Overall, the medicinal quality of the 5- and 10-year-old plants was superior to that of the 1- to 3-year-old plants. These findings suggest that an insufficient growth period may limit both the development of desirable rhizome morphology and the accumulation of important medicinal compounds. 7 Recommendations and Future Perspectives for High-Quality Atractylodes macrocephala Production 7.1 Quality-oriented cultivation system The cultivation of Atractylodes macrocephala should gradually shift from a yield-oriented approach to a quality-oriented production system. High-quality production should be evaluated using multiple indicators rather than relying only on rhizome yield or alcohol-soluble extract content. The major bioactive compounds of A. macrocephala include sesquiterpenes, volatile oils, and polysaccharides. Among them, atractylenolides I, II, III, and atractylon are the main chemical markers used for quality control. Polysaccharides are also important active components because they contribute to immune regulation, gastrointestinal protection, and metabolic regulation (Liu et al., 2022). Studies have shown that Daodi production areas generally produce plants with better rhizome growth, higher levels of bioactive compounds, and superior overall quality than many newly developed production regions. High-quality production areas also tend to have more stable and diverse rhizosphere microbial communities. These findings indicate that superior medicinal quality depends not only on genetic background but also on long-term ecological conditions and healthy soil microbial ecosystems. Therefore, cultivation should be prioritized in suitable ecological regions, traditional Daodi production areas should be protected, and regional cultivation practices should be developed according to local environmental conditions. Traditional quality evaluation mainly relies on sensory assessment and laboratory chemical analysis. Although these methods satisfy pharmacopoeia requirements, they are time-consuming and are not suitable for rapid screening in large-scale production. Recently, electronic tongue technology combined with machine learning has been used to rapidly classify A. macrocephala samples while simultaneously predicting major quality indicators, including polysaccharides, volatile oils, atractylenolides I-III, biatractylenolides, and atractylon, with an overall classification accuracy of 95.56% (Yang et al., 2026). This technology provides a practical tool for raw material grading, post-harvest screening, and quality monitoring, and it is expected to become an important supplement to conventional laboratory analysis in the future.
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