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PlantID - DNA-based identification of multiple medicinal plants in complex mixtures.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:An efficient method for the identification of medicinal plant products is now a priority as the global demand increases. This study aims to develop a DNA-based method for the identification and authentication of plant species that can be implemented in the industry to aid compliance with regulations, based upon the economically important Hypericum perforatum L. (St John's Wort or Guan ye Lian Qiao). METHODS:The ITS regions of several Hypericum species were analysed to identify the most divergent regions and PCR primers were designed to anneal specifically to these regions in the different Hypericum species. Candidate primers were selected such that the amplicon produced by each species-specific reaction differed in size. The use of fluorescently labelled primers enabled these products to be resolved by capillary electrophoresis. RESULTS:Four closely related Hypericum species were detected simultaneously and independently in one reaction. Each species could be identified individually and in any combination. The introduction of three more closely related species to the test had no effect on the results. Highly processed commercial plant material was identified, despite the potential complications of DNA degradation in such samples. CONCLUSION:This technique can detect the presence of an expected plant material and adulterant materials in one reaction. The method could be simply applied to other medicinal plants and their problem adulterants.

SUBMITTER: Howard C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3464944 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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PlantID - DNA-based identification of multiple medicinal plants in complex mixtures.

Howard Caroline C Socratous Eleni E Williams Sarah S Graham Eleanor E Fowler Mark R MR Scott Nigel W NW Bremner Paul D PD Slater Adrian A

Chinese medicine 20120728 1

<h4>Background</h4>An efficient method for the identification of medicinal plant products is now a priority as the global demand increases. This study aims to develop a DNA-based method for the identification and authentication of plant species that can be implemented in the industry to aid compliance with regulations, based upon the economically important Hypericum perforatum L. (St John's Wort or Guan ye Lian Qiao).<h4>Methods</h4>The ITS regions of several Hypericum species were analysed to i ...[more]

PMID: 22838839

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Project description:BACKGROUND: Medicinal plant trade is important for local livelihoods. However, many medicinal plants are difficult to identify when they are sold as roots, powders or bark. DNA barcoding involves using a short, agreed-upon region of a genome as a unique identifier for species- ideally, as a global standard. RESEARCH QUESTION: What is the functionality, efficacy and accuracy of the use of barcoding for identifying root material, using medicinal plant roots sold by herbalists in Marrakech, Morocco, as a test dataset. METHODOLOGY: In total, 111 root samples were sequenced for four proposed barcode regions rpoC1, psbA-trnH, matK and ITS. Sequences were searched against a tailored reference database of Moroccan medicinal plants and their closest relatives using BLAST and Blastclust, and through inference of RAxML phylograms of the aligned market and reference samples. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Sequencing success was high for rpoC1, psbA-trnH, and ITS, but low for matK. Searches using rpoC1 alone resulted in a number of ambiguous identifications, indicating insufficient DNA variation for accurate species-level identification. Combining rpoC1, psbA-trnH and ITS allowed the majority of the market samples to be identified to genus level. For a minority of the market samples, the barcoding identification differed significantly from previous hypotheses based on the vernacular names. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Endemic plant species are commercialized in Marrakech. Adulteration is common and this may indicate that the products are becoming locally endangered. Nevertheless the majority of the traded roots belong to species that are common and not known to be endangered. A significant conclusion from our results is that unknown samples are more difficult to identify than earlier suggested, especially if the reference sequences were obtained from different populations. A global barcoding database should therefore contain sequences from different populations of the same species to assure the reference sequences characterize the species throughout its distributional range.

Dataset Information

PlantID - DNA-based identification of multiple medicinal plants in complex mixtures.

Publications

PlantID - DNA-based identification of multiple medicinal plants in complex mixtures.

Similar Datasets

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