Planta Med 2014; 80 - P2B94
DOI: 10.1055/s-0034-1394971

Applying DNA Barcoding to identify species of medicinal plants

LS Sampaio 2, BB Januario 1, G Zimmermann Martins 4, RR Duarte Moreira 3, RM Barretto Cicarelli 1
  • 1Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho”, Biological Sciences Department, Brazil
  • 2Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho”, Institute of Chemistry, Brazil
  • 3Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho”, Natural Active Principles and Toxicology Department, Brazil
  • 4Centro Universitário da Fundação Educacional de Barretos, Brazil

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in recent years, 80% of the population made use of some kind of medical plant in search of relief from any painful or unpleasant symptoms [1]. In 2003, Herbert Paul proposed the use of “DNA Barcoding” as a method to identify species using a small gene sequence from part of the genome of the species [2]. In this way to confirm the species of four compounds of medicinal tea widely consumed by Brazilian population – Melissa officinalis, Mykania laevigata, Vernonia polyanthes and Solanum lycocarpum – we have used the technique of DNA Barcode. For this purpose, the DNA were extracted using the CTAB protocol (cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide) [3]. The PCR reaction was done using the following primers pairs: rbcLa, psbA – trnH and ITS2. The samples were applied in capillary electrophoresis on ABI 3500 Genetic Analyzer (Applied Biosystems). The table shows the results.

Medicinal plants

rbcLa

psbA-trnH

ITS2

Solanum lycocarpum (leaves)

Solanum virginianum

Solanum elaeagnifolium

Glycine soja

Melissa officinalis (tea)

Lantana camara

Lantana camara

Lippia alba

Mikania laevigata (tea)

Mikania laevigata

Tetrachyron orizabaensis

Mikania laevigata

Vernonia polyanthes (tea)

Cestrum nocturnum

Cestrum diurnum

Vernonia intermedia

The DNA Barcoding results allowed to confirm the identity of M. Laevigata, but not for the other analyzed species. The leaves from S. lycocarpum and V. polyanthes were confirmed by macroscopic and microscopic analyzes when the exsicata were making, which demonstrated that this new methodology helps to improve the studies for the identification using new primers increasing the genetic database of Brazilian species of medicinal plants.

Keywords: Brazilian medicinal plants, DNA Barcoding, species identification

References:

[1] de Sousa, OV, Pinto, TMS. Relatório do Estágio Supervisionado Produção Vegetal – II: Manejo e Produção de plantas medicinais e aromáticas. Universidade de São Paulo, Escola Superior de Agricultura “Luíz de Queiroz”, Departamento de Produção Vegetal, 2009.

[2] Barcode of life. What is DNA Barcoding? Available at http://www.barcodeoflife.org/content/about/what-dna-barcoding. Accessed September 14, 2013.

[3] Murray, M.G; Thompson, W.F. Rapid isolation of high molecular weight plant DNA. Nucleic Acids Research, v. 8, n. 19, 1980.