Endangered Uyghur Medicinal Plant Ferula Identification through the Second Internal Transcribed Spacer.

Congzhao Fan,Jingyuan Song,Jun Zhu,Hui Yao,Xiaojin Li

doi:10.1155/2015/479879

Abstract

The medicinal plant Ferula has been widely used in Asian medicine, especially in Uyghur medicine in Xinjiang, China. Given that various substitutes and closely related species have similar morphological characteristics, Ferula is difficult to distinguish based on morphology alone, thereby causing confusion and threatening the safe use of Ferula. In this study, internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) sequences were analyzed and assessed for the accurate identification of two salable Ferula species (Ferula sinkiangensis and Ferula fukangensis) and eight substitutes or closely related species. Results showed that the sequence length of ITS2 ranged from 451 bp to 45 bp, whereas guanine and cytosine contents (GC) were from 53.6% to 56.2%. A total of 77 variation sites were detected, including 63 base mutations and 14 insertion/deletion mutations. The ITS2 sequence correctly identified 100% of the samples at the species level using the basic local alignment search tool 1 and nearest-distance method. Furthermore, neighbor-joining tree successfully identified the genuine plants F. sinkiangensis and F. fukangensis from their succedaneum and closely related species. These results indicated that ITS2 sequence could be used as a valuable barcode to distinguish Uyghur medicine Ferula from counterfeits and closely related species. This study may broaden DNA barcoding application in the Uyghur medicinal plant field.

Highlights

The endangered Uyghur medicinal herb Ferula has a long history of application in China
The length of the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) region was 226 bp to 230 bp; the guanine and cytosine contents (GC) contents ranged from 53.0% to 56.8%
The results showed that the Uyghur medicinal herbs F. fukangensis and F. sinkiangensis presented good monophyly; they could be correctly distinguished from their succedaneum F. ferulaeoides and other closely related species

Summary

Introduction

The endangered Uyghur medicinal herb Ferula has a long history of application in China. It was first utilized in the Tang Materia Medica during the Tang Dynasty (AD 659) because of its effectiveness in removing food residues, as well as its dispersed stuffiness and chlordime form [1]. Ferula is included in the Uyghur Medicine Criteria [11] and calendar version of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia [12]. In addition to a close relationship with traditional Chinese medicine, Uyghur medicine has absorbed the essences of Indian, Arabian, Iran, and ancient Greek medicine, thereby forming a complete system of medicine with distinctive ethnic characteristics. Traditional Chinese medicine utilizes Ferula resin, whereas Uyghur medicineutilizes Ferula resin, roots, and seeds [13] as clinical parts

Methods

Results

Conclusion