Identification of herbal tea ingredient microcos paniculata and its adulterants using DNA barcoding / 中国药学杂志

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To explore a new method to identify Microcos paniculata to guarantee its safe use. METHODS: ITS2 Sequence was used as a barcode to identify herbal tea ingredient M. paniculata and its adulterants. The genomic DNAs from 56 samples were extracted, and the ITS2 sequences were amplified and bidirectionally sequenced. All the sequences were assembled and obtained using the CodonCode Aligner V3.7.1. The genetic distances were computed by kimura 2-parameter (K2P) model and the neighbor-joining (NJ) phylogenetic trees were constructed using MEGA6.1. RESULTS: The length of ITS2 sequence of M. paniculata was 237 bp. The intra-specific genetic distances (0-0.036) were much shorter than the inter-specific genetic distances (0.155-0.404) between M. paniculata and its adulterants. The NJ tree indicated that M. paniculata and its adulterants could be distinguished clearly. CONCLUSION: ITS2 Barcode can accurately and effectively distinguish herbal tea ingredient M. paniculata from its adulterants, which provides a new molecular method to identify M. paniculata from its adulterants. It is a great help for the market supervision and medication safety.