Vol. 4, Issue 4, Part A (2016)
Utility of ITS2 as a specific barcode for Aristolochia spp.
Author(s): Soumya Murali, Rashmi TR, Francis MS
Abstract: The genus Aristolochia includes medicinal plants and some are used as ornamentals due to their showy flowers. In many countries including India the plant is commonly used to treat snake bite and has great ethno pharmacological importance. DNA barcoding studies were carried out using the commonly employed marker genes rbcL, matK, psbA-trnH and ITS2 in four species of Aristolochia, Aristolochia indica L., Aristolochia tagala Cham., Aristolochia ringens Vahl. and Aristolochia krisagathra Sivarajan and Pradeep. Of this A. indica, A. tagala and A. krisagathra are native to India; A. ringens is native to South and Central America. A. krisagathra is reported to be endemic to India and is found restricted to the southern part of Western Ghats in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. No reports are available on the molecular aspects of this plant which makes the study relevant. It was found that among the four markers used, ITS2 showed higher variation percentage followed by psbA-trnH. The dendrograms obtained from ITS2 also backed the morphological observation.
How to cite this article:
Soumya Murali, Rashmi TR, Francis MS. Utility of ITS2 as a specific barcode for Aristolochia spp.. Int J Herb Med 2016;4(4):43-48.