Abstract

Plantago, principal genus of Plantaginaceae family, constitutes about 260 species which are considered medicinally important due to a wide range of biological activities that have been found from the plant extracts. Since ancient times Plantago species have been extensively used for treating diversified diseases and their use is still prevalent today in both traditional and in modern medicine. For insight in genetic makeup of the Plantago species polymerase chain reaction-restricted fragments length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) was used in this study for analysis of similarities and differences within and among species. PCR-RFLP of rps14 gene in three Plantago species (Plantago ovata, Plantago lanceolataand Plantago maxicana) showed high degree of similarity and low genetic diversification among the selected species. This study concluded on that the rps14 gene sequences are highly conserved among the selected species and only about 14% polymorphism was observed.

Key words: Phylogeny, chloroplast DNA, plantago, polymerase chain reaction-restricted fragments length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP).