Effect of Harvest, Processing and Cropping on Productivity and Active Ingredient Content of Pseudostellaria heterophylla

By varying the harvest time, processing method and cropping practice, the productivity and content of active ingredients in the Pseudostellaria heterophylla roots harvested were studied. It was found that (a) delayed harvestingreduced the yield and polysaccharide content in the roots; (b) crop harvested at a time between early and late peroid had a lower moisture and higher ash content than either period; (c) processing method affected significantly on the contents of ash, polysaccharides, and saponins of the finished product; (d) the greatest polysaccharide content in thefinished product was achieved bydrying in the shade (F1) followed by blanching (F3);(e) the highestsaponin content was foundin the product dried in the shade, and thelowest by blanching; (f) content ofactive ingredients could be maximized by drying in the shade, but, the processing cost wasminimal if sun-drying was used; (g) continuously cropped P.heterophylla produced roots with 1.20 times higherpolysaccharide content than control.