Journal of
Medicinal Plants Research

  • Abbreviation: J. Med. Plants Res.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1996-0875
  • DOI: 10.5897/JMPR
  • Start Year: 2007
  • Published Articles: 3839

Full Length Research Paper

Discrimination of the medicinal plant Fallopia multiflora and its adulterants by diagnostic polymerase chain reaction (PCR)

Tao Liu1,2, Hanjing Yan3 and Xiaorong Guo1*
1Institute of Ecology and Geobotany, School of Life Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming, 650091, P. R. China. 2Faculty of Agronomy and Biotechnology, Yunnan Agricultural University, Heilongtan, Kunming 650201, P. R. China. 3School of Traditional Chinese Medicines, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou 510006, P. R. China.
Email: [email protected]

  •  Accepted: 07 March 2011
  •  Published: 04 August 2011

Abstract

The roots of Fallopia multiflora are widely used in Chinese medicine for their anti-inflammatory prosperities. While recently, F. multiflora has been found to be adulterated with some species with similar morphologies but little or different biological activity due to its natural resource deficiency. The discrimination of F. multiflora from its adulterants is currently limited to methods of morphology and chemical fingerprinting. To distinguish F. multiflora from its adulterants efficiently, the chloroplast atpB-rbcL intergenic spacers of them were sequenced and analyzed, and one pair of diagnostic primers were designed for differentiating F. multiflora from its adulterants. This technique provided accurate, effective, and rapid approaches to distinguish F. multiflora from the adulterants.

 

Key wordsFallopia multiflora, atpB-rbcL intergenic spacers, diagnostic polymerase chain reaction, adulterants, molecular authentication.