Molecular DNA identification of medicinal plants used by traditional healers in Malaysia

Plants have been used throughout human history for food and medicine. However, many plants are toxic, and cannot easily be morphologically distinguished from non-toxic plants. DNA identification solves this problem and is widely used. Nonetheless, plant DNA barcode identification faces a number of c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Genetics and molecular research 2015-01, Vol.14 (4), p.15937-15947
Main Authors: Aziz, N A A, Ahmad, M I, Naim, D M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Computational Biology - methods
DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic
DNA, Intergenic
DNA, Plant
Genes, Plant
Genetic Loci
Genetic Markers
Malaysia
Phylogeny
Plants, Medicinal - classification
Plants, Medicinal - genetics
Polymorphism, Genetic
Sequence Analysis, DNA
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Summary:Plants have been used throughout human history for food and medicine. However, many plants are toxic, and cannot easily be morphologically distinguished from non-toxic plants. DNA identification solves this problem and is widely used. Nonetheless, plant DNA barcode identification faces a number of challenges, and many studies have been conducted to find suitable barcodes. The present study was conducted to test the efficiency of commonly used primers, namely ITS2, rpoC1, and trnH-psbA, in order to find the best DNA barcode markers for the identification of medicinal plants in Malaysia. Fresh leaves from 12 medicinal plants that are commonly used by Malay traditional healers were collected from the Tropical Spice Garden, Pulau Pinang, and subjected to polymerase chain reaction amplification using ITS2, rpoC1, and trnH-psbA DNA markers. We found that trnH-psbA is the best DNA marker for the species-level identification of medicinal plants in Malaysia.
ISSN:1676-5680
1676-5680
DOI:10.4238/2015.December.7.5