An Artemisia argyi cultivar, designated ‘Pyeong-an-ae’, was developed to enhance yield, lodging resistance, and functional compound content for medicinal use. The breeding objective was to select a high-yielding cultivar with improved agronomic performance and regional adaptability. The breeding material originated from an open-pollinated population of a collected accession (MPR-0506), and superior lines were selected through pedigree selection. Line AA1903 was selected for favorable growth traits and subsequently evaluated in yield and regional adaptation trials under the designation Y-MCD-007-1 in Eumseong-gun and Pyeongchang-gun, Korea. ‘Pyeong-an-ae’ exhibited an erect growth habit, thicker stems, and a larger leaf area than the control (Artemisia argyi landrace), resulting in enhanced lodging resistance and biomass production. The average dry leaf yield was 535 kg/10a, approximately two-fold higher than that of the control. The cultivar maintained relatively higher levels of eupatilin than the control before flowering. RAW264.7 macrophage-based bioactivity assays showed that the water extract exhibited lower cytotoxicity than the ethanol extract. Both extracts significantly inhibited LPS-induced nitric oxide production, with the ethanolic extracts exhibiting stronger inhibitory effects. ‘Pyeong-an-ae’ is vegetatively propagated and registered under Plant Variety Protection No. 398. Its superior agronomic traits, stable bioactive compound contents, and functional properties support its potential for commercial cultivation and medicinal applications.
Soybean [Glycine max. (L.) Merr] is one of the most important legumes in the world. However, soybean varieties are sensitive to flooding stress and their seed yields are substantially reduced in response to the flooding stress. 192 soybean germplasm collection was screened to identify flooding tolerant germplasm at an early vegetative growth stage (V1). Soybean plants at V1 stage were waterlogged for 4 to 10 days. To evaluate flooding tolerance, survival rate were investigated as a time dependent manner. Jangbaegkong, Danbaegkong, Sowonkongkong, Socheong2 and Suwon269 showed flooding tolerance, while Shillog, T201, T181, NTS1116 and HP-963 showed flooding sensitivity. We also investigated effects of flooding stress on soybean morphology. The adventitious root development was greatly increased in flooding tolerant plants compared to it in flooding sensitive plants. In addition, root length and root number were analyzed. The significant reduction of root length and root number was observed in flooding sensitive plants. Thus, these results indicate that the morphological changes in roots are important for acclimation to flooding stress. Taken together, the relationship between the morphological changes in the roots and flooding tolerance may be useful in selecting a flooding tolerant soybean germplasm.