In July, the midsummer is the season when plants grow vigorously. On the island of Hainan, on the shore of the sea, in the park, behind the front of the village, in the depths of the rain forest, the flowers bloom, the trees are green, the grass is green, and the heavens and the earth are filled with the fragrance of flowers and trees. These bring a pleasant aroma to a wide variety of aromatic plants. Why do these plants emit aroma? What are these aromatic ingredients? Why do humans are so fascinated by the fragrance? To this end, Hainan Weekly launched the “Aromatic Plants” report to showcase the aromatic plants on Hainan Island, and trace the history of aromatic plants using the history of aromatic plants.

　　How much is Hainan fragrance?

The fragrant smell always gives people unlimited space for imagination. From ancient times to the present, from the court to the folk, there are customs of burning incense, burning incense and lyrics, painting poems and burning incense. For the pursuit of aromatic plants, people from all over the world are driven all the time. As one of the main producing areas of aromatic plants in China, Hainan Island has attracted much attention since ancient times.

So, how many kinds of aromatic plants are there in Hainan, one of the major provinces of aromatic plants in China? In this regard, Wang Jian, a professor at the College of Landscape and Horticulture of Hainan University, led a team to conduct a study and found that there are a total of 610 species of 124 species of aromatic plants on Hainan Island.

　　What is aromatic plant?

Since ancient times, there have been many poems sighing aromatic plants.

"CaiCai Asiatic Yi, mining of thin words. CaiCai Asiatic Yi, thin has said, "this is about sweet scene; "Thin film oblique water light, faint fragrance floating on the evening of the moon", this is aria fragrant flowers; "Liao agalloch eaglewood, reducing heat and humidity," is a description of incense burning; "Sunshine incense burner gives birth to purple smoke, looking at the waterfall hanging in front of the river", this is written incense burner......

“Whether we are in the wild or in the gardens of the city, we will feel the unique atmosphere of aromatic plants.” Wang Jian said that the aroma comes from the volatile substances contained in the plant itself.

"Scent is a way of plant survival strategy." Wang Jian said that the main ingredients of the fragrance emitted by plants are some aromatic ketones and aldehydes, as well as a variety of lower ester compounds. Different plants contain different chemical compositions, which produce a variety of scent and richness.

China is a large aromatic country. China's aromatic plants account for about 18% of the world's known aromatic species, and are concentrated in Compositae, Polygonaceae, Labiatae, Magnoliaceae, Rutaceae, Umbelliferae, Rosaceae, and Pineaceae. In plants such as ginger family.

“According to the parts that produce fragrance, aromatic plants can be divided into four categories, namely, fragrant plants, vanilla plants, fragrant fruit plants and fragrant wood plants.” Wang Jian said that flowers are the most familiar source of plant aroma, so fragrant plants are the most Well-known aromatic plants, including medlar, Milan, orchid, sweet-scented osmanth, peony, peony, rose, smiling, daffodil, clove, jade, wisteria, thyme, jasmine, rose, and plum. Herb plants include sage, lavender, basil, rosemary, perilla, mint, and parsley. The fragrant fruit plants include mango, pomelo, orange, kumquat, bergamot, grape, lemon, and the like. Most of the fragrant fruit plants are edible, and the scent they exude during eating can improve people's moods. A fragrant woody plant refers to a plant in which the trunk wood can emit woody aromas, such as laurel, sandalwood, camphor, and nanmu.

　　　124 families of 610 species of Hainan aromatic plants

"The early morning dreams of the old piano, bamboo stove recast Hainan Shen", this is the Song Dynasty poet Lu You's record of Hainan's aromatic plant - agarwood, his poems have appeared Hainan aromatic plants many times. Because as early as the Song Dynasty, Hainan Aquilaria has become famous in the world and became a part of the life of the scholar-officials.

In addition to agarwood, Hainan has a large number of aromatic plants. Hainan Island has a tropical monsoon climate with abundant sunshine and abundant rainfall. The average annual temperature is 22-26 °C, and the average annual rainfall is 1639 mm. The unique climate makes Hainan rich in aromatic plant resources.

Wang Jian team selected 12 representative urban park green spaces in Haikou for on-the-spot investigation, including People's Park, Jinniuling Park, Baishamen Park, Wanlv Park, Wugong Temple and Meishe River Belt Park. The survey found that 558 plants were used in 12 parks, including 43 families, 82 genera and 100 species of aromatic plants, including 52 species of arbor, 27 species of shrubs, 1 species of vines and 20 species of herbs. Aromatic plants are mainly concentrated in the oleander family (8 species), Myrtaceae (9 species), Polygonaceae (4 species), Rutaceae (7 species), Orchidaceae (5 species), and legumes (6 species). ).

“The utilization of aromatic plants in different parks varies greatly. Jinniuling Park has the largest number of aromatic plants and the highest proportion of use.” Wang Jian said that all parks have the highest proportion of arbor and the lowest vine. The frequency of plant use is the largest in coconut trees and is used in 12 parks. It reflects the tropical characteristics of Haikou and is also compatible with the title of “Coconut City”. Followed by the frangipani and Jiulixiang, most of the park has applications, camphor, goat's hoof, bitter buckwheat, white orchid, oil palm is also a common aromatic plant. Temperate and subtropical common aromatic plants such as peach, plum, and purple magnolia are rare. It is worth noting that some aromatic plants such as ylang-ylang, talons, night-scented trees, and fragrant woods are also used less.

On this basis, Wang Jian et al. through the literature sorting, based on the "Aromatic Plant Landscape", "Aromatic Plants 300", "Aromatic Flowers", "Hainan Flora", "Chinese aromatic plants", "Chinese landscape plants" bibliography Classification, comprehensively sort out a total of 610 species of 124 families of aromatic plants in Hainan Island.

　　Create Hainan's aromatic island

Hainan's existing historical documents and cultural relics show that Hainan is an important commercial and trade station and replenishment site on the Maritime Silk Road. The local products of Hainan Island have been sold along the route, and have been sold all over the North and even Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, etc. Among them, the aromatic plants of Hainan Island are particularly striking.

Since the Song Dynasty, the continuous Hainan agarwood has been transported to the mainland through various channels. At that time, Hainan Island could be described as “Xiangdao”. Li Shizhen, a medical scientist of the Ming Dynasty, compared the agarwood in Southeast Asia in the "Compendium of Materia Medica", saying that Hainan's agarwood "has a crown of the world, a million dollars."

It is precisely because of this kind of origin that people of insight keep calling for Hainan to strive to build a fragrance industry, and to build a real “Xiangdao” that integrates raw materials and processing into one, and integrates forestry, agriculture, tourism, medical and other industries. .

The provincial Taiwan Federation submitted a proposal last year, suggesting to promote the healthy development of the province's spice industry and build Hainan International Xiangdao. The proposal reads: "At present, our province should vigorously develop the Qiongxiang industry, which is dominated by the historically renowned agarwood, scented fragrant, pepper and southern medicine. It will make Hainan an international Xiangdao and reshape Hainan's Shenxiang Holy Land. , Spice Kingdom's brand."

The provincial Taiwan Federation believes that Hainan has a unique environmental and resource advantages, and Qiongxiang is quite popular among pilgrims. In addition to agarwood, there are many varieties of fragrant, rose, and so on. Hainan Xiangye now has a certain scale and popularity. The acreage-only planting area is 30,000-470,000 mu. The annual output value of the agarwood industry in our province exceeds 100 million yuan. It can combine the construction of Hainan “Xiangdao” and “health island” with the construction of international tourism islands, improve the industrial chain of medicine and fragrance products and homologous products of medicines and foods, and promote its industrialization development.

Wang Jian believes that Hainan's unique resources can be used to widely apply aromatic plants to the garden industry and contribute to the construction of international tourism islands. To this end, they screened out the aromatic plants available in Hainan's landscape, including 398 species of wild families and cultivars, including 141 species of trees, 94 species of shrubs, 23 species of vines, and 110 species of herbaceous plants.

It is reported that the Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology has responded to the proposal of the Taiwan Union, saying that the proposal proposal will be adopted to promote the formation of a large Chinese medicine health industry in the characteristic ecological Chinese medicine industry and expand the brand influence of Hainan Island.