Genetic diversity, LCMS based chemical fingerprinting and antioxidant activity of Epimedium elatum Morr & Decne

Abstract

Epimedium elatum Morr & Decne is a perennial herb, endemic to shady coniferous forests of north-western Himalayas, India. It owes its pharmaceutical importance to high concentration of flavonoid glycosides particularly epimedins and Icariin. A lot of medicinal properties are attributed to them like aphrodisiac (PDE-5 inhibition), anti-osteoporosis, anticancer, antioxidant, anti-fatigue and antiviral activities. In the present study, twenty accessions of E. elatum were investigated for their genetic diversity and chemo-profiling through molecular markers and fingerprinting, respectively. Further, their phyto-chemical variation and related antioxidant activities are also being reported. Molecular fingerprinting resulted in 277 total loci, out of which 254 were polymorphic, displaying an overall polymorphism of 91.1%. Moreover, fourteen unique bands were amplified, maximum (6) were amplified in GL accession from 3 primers (UBC900, UBC834 & UBC823). The dendrogram topology indicated moderate to high genetic diversity corroborating with diversity index (0.36). Chemo-profiling revealed epimedin B and epimedin C as the major prenylated flavonoids in leaves, while Icariin was found highest in underground parts. However, no correlation could be deduced between molecular and prenylated flavonoid profiling in the present study. Furthermore, ethanolic extracts of rhizomes exhibited stronger antioxidant ability. The study has great implications as the wild resource conservation, germplasm assessment, quality resource explorations have become critical for the sustainability of the species. Efforts are thus needed to conserve the elite accessions of E. elatum.