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AUTHENTICATION OF
RUTA GRAVEOLENS AND ITS ADULTERANT USING INTERNAL
TRANSCRIBED SPACER (ITS) SEQUENCES
OF NUCLEAR RIBOSOMAL
DNA
FAHAD AL-QURAINY1,
SALIM KHAN1*, M. AJMAL ALI1, FAHAD M. AL-HEMAID1, MOHAMED TARROUM1
AND M. ASHRAF1,2
Abstract:
Ruta graveolens
L. (Rutaceae) is commonly known as ‘Sudab’ which is well known
for hippocratic medicine and is commonly used in indigenous health-care
system in India.
Euphorbia
dracunculoides
Lam. (Euphorbiaceae)
in raw drug trading has almost similar morphology to
R. graveolens
in dried state,
is being sold locally or used clinically as an adulterant of R.
graveolens (genuine) at a relatively low price under the same name ‘Sudab’
which has ultimately reduced the efficacy and quality of this herb. The
internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequence of nuclear ribosomal DNA gene
of genuine and adulterant were sequenced and analyzed to assess species
admixture in raw drug trading of genuine herbal drug. The BLAST search
results of ITS sequence of genuine sample of ‘Sudab’ i.e., R.
graveolens showed 99% similarity to the sequence of R. graveolens,
however, E. dracunculoides showed 100% similarity to the species
of Euphorbia and did not show any similarity with R.
graveolens. The sequence alignment of both species was entirely
different to each other. Phylogenetic analysis based on ITS sequence of
adulterant sample i.e., E. dracunculoides together with sequences
of Euphorbia species available in the GenBank has also clearly
showed its nesting within the Euphorbia tree. The generated ITS
sequences of both samples in the present study may be referred hereafter
as species-specific DNA barcode signature, which can be used in
authenticating and validating the exact species identities to
discriminate the genuine sample of ‘Sudab’ from its adulterants
if any available to guarantee the quality and purity of this drug in the
herbal drug market.
1Department
of Botany and Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University,
Riyadh- 11451, Saudi Arabia
2Department
of Botany, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38040, Pakistan
*Correspondence
author E-mail:
salimkhan17@yahoo.co.in; Tel: +966-014675876; Fax:
+966-4678301
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