Identification of commercial Lycii Cortex and its adulterants using ITS2 sequence as DNA barcode / 中国药学杂志

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To identify the commercial medicinal materials and decoction pieces of Lycii Cortex and its adulterants using DNA barcoding technology. METHODS: A total of 137 samples, including 105 voucher samples belonging to nine species, seven GenBank sequences, and 25 test samples were involved in this study. Experiments were performed in accordance with the DNA barcoding standard operating procedures (DNA barcoding SOP) to get the ITS2 sequences. A DNA barcode database of Lycii Cortex and its adulterants were successfully constructed using 112 ITS2 sequences, which were amplified from the voucher samples and downloaded from the GenBank. This database was used to identify the commercial medicinal materials and decoction pieces of Lycii Cortex. RESULTS: The lengths of the ITS2 regions of the Lycii Cortex were 212-230 bp. The ITS2 sequences could clearly distinguish Lycii Cortex and its adulterants. Fifty percent of the commercial samples gained the ideal genomic DNA for the sequence amplification. Using the established database, the above-mentioned sequences were authenticated as Lycium chinense. CONCLUSION: ITS2 Sequence may be a suitable marker for the identification of Lycii Cortex and its adulterants. The DNA barcode databaseof Lycii Cortex and its adulterants constructed in this study are able to successfully identify the raw materials of the commercial medicinal materials and decoction pieces of Lycii Cortex that are currently available in the market.