Utilizing online gradient pressure liquid extraction (OGPLE) coupled with a high-performance liquid chromatography antioxidant analysis system, we examined the antioxidative active components present in both the aerial parts and roots of dandelion. By optimizing the chromatographic conditions, we identified the ferric reducing-antioxidant power system as the most suitable for online antioxidant reactions in dandelion. Compared to offline ultrasonic extraction, the OGPLE method demonstrated superior efficiency in extracting chemical components with varying polarities from the samples. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry revealed twelve compounds within the dandelion samples, with nine demonstrating considerable antioxidant efficacy. Of these, the aerial parts and roots of dandelion contained nine and four antioxidant constituents, respectively. Additionally, molecular docking studies were carried out to investigate the interaction between these nine antioxidants and four proteins associated with oxidative stress (glutathione peroxidase, inducible nitric oxide synthase, superoxide dismutase, and xanthine oxidase). The nine antioxidant compounds displayed notable binding affinities below -5.0 kcal/mol with the selected proteins, suggesting potential receptor-ligand interactions. These findings contribute to enhancing our understanding of dandelion and provide a comprehensive methodology for screening the natural antioxidant components from herbs.

Taraxacum mongolicum (TM) is a kind of medicinal and edible homologous plant which is included in the catalogue of feed raw materials in China. It is rich in polyphenols, flavonoids, polysaccharides and other active substances, and shows many benefits to livestock, poultry and aquatic products. The study aimed to assess the potential of TM aqueous extract (TMAE) as a substitute for poultry AGPs.
A total of 240 one-day-old Arbor Acker broilers were randomly assigned to four groups and fed a basal diet (Con) supplemented with 500, 1000, and 2000 mg/kg TMAE (Low, Medium, and High groups). The growth performance of the broilers was measured on day 21 and day 42. At the end of the trial, the researchers measured slaughter performance and collected serum, liver, spleen, ileum, and intestinal contents to investigate the effects of TMAE on serum biochemistry, antioxidant capacity, immune function, organ coefficient, intestinal morphology, flora composition, and short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs).
The results showed that broilers treated with TMAE had a significantly higher average daily gain from 22 to 42 days old compared to the Con group. Various doses of TMAE resulted in different levels of improvement in serum chemistry. High doses increased serum alkaline phosphatase and decreased creatinine. TMAE also increased the antioxidant capacity of serum, liver, and ileum in broilers. Additionally, middle and high doses of TMAE enhanced the innate immune function of the liver (IL-10) and ileum (Occludin) in broilers. Compared to the control group, the TMAE treatment group exhibited an increase in the ratio of villi length to villi crypt in the duodenum. TMAE increased the abundance of beneficial bacteria, such as Alistipes and Lactobacillus, while reducing the accumulation of harmful bacteria, such as Colidextracter and Sellimonas. The cecum\'s SCFAs content increased with a medium dose of TMAE. Supplementing broiler diets with TMAE at varying doses enhanced growth performance and overall health. The most significant benefits were observed at a dose of 1000 mg/kg, including improved serum biochemical parameters, intestinal morphology, antioxidant capacity of the liver and ileum, immune function of the liver and ileum, and increased SCFAs content. Lactobacillus aviarius, norank_f_norank_o__Clostridia_UCG-014, and Flavonifractor are potentially dominant members of the intestinal microflora.
In conclusion, TMAE is a promising poultry feed additive and 1000 mg/kg is an effective reference dose.

Taraxacum mongolicum is a perennial herbaceous plant in the family Asteraceae, with a high edible and medicinal value and is widely planted in China. In August 2022, leaf spots were found on T. mongolicum in Tianjiazhai Town, Xining City, Qinghai Province, China (36°27\'17.65″N, 101°47\'19.65E, elevation: 2,408 m). The plants exhibited round or irregular brown spots, and the centers of some of the spots were gray (Fig. S1A). An investigation was performed over a hectare area, and the incidence of leaf spot reached 15%-30%, seriously affecting the quality and yield of T. mongolicum. Eleven T. mongolicum leaf spot samples were collected. To isolate the pathogenic fungus, approximately 0.5 cm×0.5 cm pieces of tissues were obtained using sterile scissors from the junction of infected and healthy tissues. The symptomatic leaves were surface-disinfected with 3% NaClO for 1.5 min and washed three times with sterile water. The disinfected pieces were dried and placed on water agar plates in an incubator for 2 days at 25°C. Subsequently, the leaf surface exhibited conidiophores and conidia. Eleven isolates were obtained by single spore isolation. The sparse aerial mycelia were dark grey to black brown in color on potato dextrose agar (PDA) (Fig. S2A), and produced dark, multi-septate conidia with 7-11 transverse septa and 1-2 longitudinal septa (Fig. S2C). Conidia with one or two beaks were long-ovoid, with an average length and width of 103.4 × 21.2 μm, and 80.7 × 3.9 μm of the beaks. One hundred and ten conidia were measured. The identification of 11 isolates was confirmed by multilocus sequence analyses of the internal transcribed spacer of ribosomal DNA (rDNA ITS) (White et al. 1990), and the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) (Xu et al. 2022), actin (ACT) (Yang et al. 2020), histone 3 (HIS3) (Zheng et al. 2015), translation elongation factor 1-α (TEF1-α) (Carbone. 1999), and the second largest subunit of RNA polymerase II (RPB2) (Liu et al. 1999) genes. The sequences of all the isolates were deposited in Genbank (NCBI Accession Nos. ITS: OR105029-OR105039, ACT: OR135220-OR135230, GAPDH: OR135231-OR135241, HIS3: OR122992-OR123002, TEF1-α: PP055972-PP055982, and RPB2: PP055983-PP055993), and the sequence similarity of ITS, ACT, GAPDH, HIS3，TEF1-α and RPB2 were 100%, 98%, 100%, 99%, 100%, and 99% to the sequences of Alternaria solani, respectively. Combined sequences of ITS, GAPDH, TEF1-α, and RPB2 genes were concatenated and a maximum parsimony tree was constructed with PAUP* v. 4.0 alpha. The results indicated that 11 isolates were clustered together with A. solani (Fig. S2D). Therefore, 11 isolates were identified as A. solani based on their morphological and molecular characteristics. Eleven isolates were inoculated on their host to perform Koch\'s postulates. The isolates were grown on PDA for six days. Healthy one month old T. mongolicum seedlings were planted in 10 cm flowerpots (Fig. S1B) or the seedlings were moved to Petri dish (Fig. S1C), and their leaves were inoculated with 5 mL of hyphae suspension by smearing method. In addition, seedlings of the same age were treated with sterile water to serve as the control. The inoculated seedlings were moved into an artificial climatic box at 25℃, relative humidity was 70%, with 12 h light/12 h dark condition. Totally 80 seedlings were inoculated with isolates and 15 were used as the control. After 7 days, similar symptoms were observed on the plants inoculated with isolates, while control plants did not produce symptoms. The assays were conducted three times. Furthermore, isolates were re-isolated from the symptomatic leaves, and the colonial morphology was the same as the original isolates (Fig S2 A and B). The recovered isolates were identified as A. solani by amplifying and sequencing a portion of the HIS3 gene. Alternaria solani has been previously reported to cause early blight of potato and other Solanum crops (van der Waals et al. 2004; Zheng et al. 2015). To our knowledge, this is the first report of A. solani causing leaf spot of T. mongolicum in China. This disease must be considered in management practices, and our finding provided a basis for disease prevention and management.

MADS-box transcription regulators play important roles in plant growth and development. However, very few MADS-box genes have been isolated in the genus Taraxacum, which consists of more than 3000 species. To explore their functions in the promising natural rubber (NR)-producing plant Taraxacum kok-saghyz (TKS), MADS-box genes were identified in the genome of TKS and the related species Taraxacum mongolicum (TM; non-NR-producing) via genome-wide screening. In total, 66 TkMADSs and 59 TmMADSs were identified in the TKS and TM genomes, respectively. From diploid TKS to triploid TM, the total number of MADS-box genes did not increase, but expansion occurred in specific subfamilies. Between the two genomes, a total of 11 duplications, which promoted the expansion of MADS-box genes, were identified in the two species. TkMADS and TmMADS were highly conserved, and showed good collinearity. Furthermore, most TkMADS genes exhibiting tissue-specific expression patterns, especially genes associated with the ABCDE model, were preferentially expressed in the flowers, suggesting their conserved and dominant functions in flower development in TKS. Moreover, by comparing the transcriptomes of different TKS lines, we identified 25 TkMADSs related to biomass formation and 4 TkMADSs related to NR content, which represented new targets for improving the NR yield of TKS.

One new sesquiterpene, (6S,7R,11S)-13-carboxy-1(10)-en-dihydroartemisinic acid (1), together with three known sesquiterpenes, ainsliaea acid B (2), mongolicumin B (3), and 11β,13-dihydroxydeacetylmatricarin (4) were isolated from Taraxacum mongolicum Hand.-Mazz. The structures were established on the basis of UV, IR, HR-ESI-MS, 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy, ECD spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction analysis. Compound 1 was found to have potential anti-inflammatory activity and could reduce LPS-induced NO levels in murine macrophage, with inhibitory rate of 37%.

Fruits and vegetables are a vital source of redox-active phytochemicals in the diet. Traditional green leafy vegetables (GLVs) are a rich source of carotenoids, dietary fiber, minerals, phenols, vitamins, and tocopherols and are commonly consumed in rural areas worldwide. In traditional Korean medicine, many GLVs are used to treat various ailments. However, data on the carotenoid and tocopherol content of many traditional GLVs consumed in the Republic of Korea are insufficient. The current work aims to compare the carotenoid and tocopherol profiles of 18 traditional GLVs by utilizing a single ion monitoring LC-MS approach to identify the potential GLVs for commercial cultivation and healthy diet formulations. Among the traditional GLVs investigated, (all-E)-lutein was the most abundant carotenoid, ranging from 44.4% in Glehnia littoralis to 52.1% in Heracleum moellendorffii. It was followed by (all-E)-violaxanthin and (all-E)-β-carotene. The highest contents of (all-E)-violaxanthin (75.6 µg/g FW), 9-Z-neoxanthin (48.4 µg/g FW), (all-E)-luteoxanthin (10.8 µg/g FW), (all-E)-lutein (174.1 µg/g FW), total xanthophylls (310.5 µg/g FW), (all-E)-β-carotene (69.6 µg/g FW), and total carotenoids (380.1 µg/g FW) were recorded in Pimpinella brachycarpa. Surprisingly, Taraxacum mongolicum also showed the highest contents of (all-E)-violaxanthin, (all-E)-lutein, and total carotenoids, which were statistically non-significant (p > 0.05, Tukey HSD) with P. brachycarpa. The highest concentration of (all-E)-zeaxanthin (14.4 µg/g FW) was recorded in Solidago virga-aurea. Among the studied herbs, 13.9 (H. moellendorffii)-133.6 µg/g FW (Toona sinensis) of α-tocopherol was recorded. Overall, the results suggest that P. brachycarpa and T. mongolicum are rich sources of carotenoids. On the other hand, T. sinensis is a rich source of α-tocopherol. These GLVs can be utilized in the diet to enhance the intake of health-beneficial carotenoids and α-tocopherol.

Four new compounds (1-4), together with 23 known compounds (5-27), were isolated from the whole plant of Taraxacum mongolicum. Among them, one racemic mixture (4) was separated with a chiral HPLC column. Their structures were identified by spectroscopic evidence and mass spectrometry. The absolute configurations of compounds 1, 3, and 4 were determined via comparison of their calculated and experimental electronic circular dichroism (ECD) spectra. Compound 3 showed an inhibitory effect against aldose reductase with a 59.1% inhibition. Two known compounds (13 and 27) showed α-glucosidase inhibition of 51.5% and 56.0%, respectively.

Coexisting salt and alkaline stresses seriously threaten plant survival. Most studies have focused on halophytes; however, knowledge on how plants defend against saline-alkali stress is limited. This study investigated the role of Taraxacum mongolicum in a Puccinellia tenuiflora community under environmental saline-alkali stress to analyse the response of elements and metabolites in T. mongolicum, using P. tenuiflora as a control. The results show that the macroelements Ca and Mg are significantly accumulated in the aboveground parts (particularly in the stem) of T. mongolicum. Microelements B and Mo are also accumulated in T. mongolicum. Microelement B can adjust the transformation of sugars, and Mo contributes to the improvement in nitrogen metabolism. Furthermore, the metabolomic results demonstrate that T. mongolicum leads to decreased sugar accumulation and increased amounts of amino acids and organic acids to help plants resist saline-alkali stress. The resource allocation of carbon (sugar) and nitrogen (amino acids) results in the accumulation of only a few phenolic metabolites (i.e., petunidin, chlorogenic acid, and quercetin-3-O-rhamnoside) in T. mongolicum. These phenolic metabolites help to scavenge excess reactive oxygen species. Our study primarily helps in understanding the contribution of T. mongolicum in P. tenuiflora communities on coping with saline-alkali stress.

Rice bacterial leaf blight caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) is responsible for a significant reduction in rice production. Due to the small impact on the environment, biogenic nanomaterials are regarded as a new type of antibacterial agent. In this research, three colloids of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were synthesized with different biological materials such as Arctium lappa fruit, Solanum melongena leaves, and Taraxacum mongolicum leaves, and called Al-AgNPs, Sm-AgNPs and Tm-AgNPs, respectively. The appearance of brown colloids and the UV-Visible spectroscopy analysis proved the successful synthesis of the three colloids of AgNPs. Moreover, FTIR and XRD analysis revealed the formation of AgNPs structure. The SEM and TEM analysis indicated that the average diameters of the three synthesized spherical AgNPs were 20.18 nm, 21.00 nm, and 40.08 nm, respectively. The three botanical AgNPs had the strongest bacteriostatic against Xoo strain C2 at 20 μg/mL with the inhibition zone of 16.5 mm, 14.5 mm, and 12.4 mm, while bacterial numbers in a liquid broth (measured by OD600) decreased by 72.10%, 68.19%, and 65.60%, respectively. Results showed that the three AgNPs could inhibit biofilm formation and swarming motility of Xoo. The ultrastructural observation showed that Al-AgNPs adhered to the surface of bacteria and broke the bacteria. Overall, the three synthetic AgNPs could be used to inhibit the pathogen Xoo of rice bacterial leaf blight.

Taraxacum mongolicum (TM) is a widely used herb. Studies have reported that TM exhibits growth-inhibitory and apoptosis-inducing on multiple tumors, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The active ingredients, targets, and molecular mechanisms of TM against HCC need to be further elucidated.
We identified the active ingredients and targets of TM via HERB, PubChem, SwissADME, SwissTargetPrediction, and PharmMapper. We searched HCC targets from GeneCards, Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD), and DisGeNET. Then, the intersection of drug targets and disease targets was uploaded to the STRING database to construct protein-protein interactions (PPI) networking whose topology parameters were analyzed in Cytoscape software to screen hub targets. Next, we used Metascape for Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis, and we employed AutoDock vina, AMBER18 and PyMOL software along with several auxiliary tools for molecular docking and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. Finally, based on the in silico findings, cellular experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of TM on HSP90AA1 gene expression.
A total of 228 targets and 35 active ingredients were identified. Twenty two hub targets were selected through PPI networking construction for further investigation. The enrichment analysis showed that protein kinase binding, mitogenactivated protein kinase (MAPK) and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt signaling pathways were mainly involved. Molecular docking and MD simulation results supported good interaction between HSP90 protein and Austricin/Quercetin. The in vitro assay showed that TM inhibited the proliferation of HepG2 cells and the expression of HSP90AA1 gene.
This study is the first to use network pharmacology, molecular docking, MD simulation and cellular experiments to elucidate the active ingredients, molecular targets, and key biological pathways responsible for TM anti-HCC, providing a theoretical basis for further research.