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DNA barcoding of some medicinally important plant species of Lamiaceae family in India

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Abstract

Several species of the Lamiaceae family are the primary source of bioactive aromatic oils and secondary metabolites, having broader applications in the cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, food, confectionery and liquor industries. Due to the scarcity of raw materials and high costs of this family's economically vital species, its products often adulterated to cater to the market's high demand. The present study provides a DNA based approach for identifying different species of this family. Henceforth, the performance of three already proposed barcode loci (matK, trnH-psbA and trnL) was examined for their PCR amplification and species recognition efficacy on various Lamiaceae species and cultivars using three different approaches such as pairwise genetic distance method, BLASTn and phylogenetic tree based on maximum likelihood (ML) analysis. Results illustrate that among all the DNA barcoding loci, matK locus can accurately and efficiently distinguish all the studied species followed by trnH-psbA and trnL. Present investigation may help diminish the illegal trade and events of adulteration of medicinally important plants species in genus Mentha, Ocimum and Plectranthus. This investigation will also help fulfil the scarcity of sequences of barcode loci of these species in the NCBI database. Apart from providing a molecular level reference for identifying processed herbal products, this technique also offers a convenient method for species identification and germplasm conservation of the Lamiaceae family.

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Funding

ST acknowledges a grant from Madhya Pradesh State Agriculture Marketing Board, Bhopal, India.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biotechnology Centre, Jawaharlal Nehru Agriculture University, Jabalpur, 482004, India

    Vishwa V. Thakur, Niraj Tripathi & Sharad Tiwari

  2. Lac Production Division, ICAR-Indian Institute of Natural Resins and Gums, Namkum, Ranchi, Jharkhand, 834010, India

    Vishwa V. Thakur

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ST and VVT conceived and designed the research. VVT conducted experiments and analyzed the data. NT helped with the experiments and data analysis. VVT and NT wrote the manuscript. ST edited the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Sharad Tiwari.

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Thakur, V.V., Tripathi, N. & Tiwari, S. DNA barcoding of some medicinally important plant species of Lamiaceae family in India. Mol Biol Rep 48, 3097–3106 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-021-06356-3

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