Abstract
Withania somnifera (family Solanaceae), known commonly as Ashwaganda, is one of the important medicinal plants, and recent studies reported that Withanone, one of the chemical components in this plant, has ability to kill cancer cell. Because of endemic state of this plant to South Asia, exploring plant species under the same family which grow well in Indonesia has been of interest. The purpose of this study was to screen the Indonesian plant which has strong phylogenetic relationship with Ashwaganda. Thus, phylogenetic analysis using DNA sequences of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region was conducted. Thus, 19 species of Solanaceae and two species of Convolvulaceae as outgroup were examined. Five ITS regions of Ashwaganda retrieved from GenBank were included in the phylogenetic analysis. Parsimony analysis showed that Indonesia Solanaceae comprises seven groups which is consistent with the global Solanaceae relationship as previously reported. Furthermore, our study revealed that two species, Physalis angulata and Physalis peruviana, are relative to W. somnifera. Morphologically, they share characters of flower and fruit. This result indicated that these two species are potential to have similar chemical properties as Ashwaganda, thus we can have new variants of Withanone originated from Indonesia with similar effect.
Highlights
The use of plant as a medicine has been done many years ago by people around the world
Recent studies reported that Withanone, one of the metabolites in this plant, has anticancer activity shown by some evidence in which it can inhibit cancer cell proliferation and increases the sensitivity of cancer cell to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy (Widodo et al 2007, 2008)
Widodo et al (2010) reported that the leaf extract of Ashwaganda could inhibit the growth of a variety of human cancer cells as Withanone serves as the cancer inhibitory factor (i-Factor) and not harmful to normal human cell
Summary
The use of plant as a medicine has been done many years ago by people around the world. Widodo et al (2009, 2010) and Priyandoko et al (2011) found that i-Factor protected the normal human cells against the oxidative damage caused by ultraviolet and hydrogen peroxide. This plant is not available around the globe as its distribution is limited to India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. Exploration is needed to find Ashwaganda relatives in other regions
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