Molecular markers in characterization of medicinal plants: An overview

The demand for herbal medicines is increasing day-to-day because of their widebiological activity, higher safety margin than synthetic drugs. Hence, it is important tocharacterize the medicinal herbs. For the characterization of medicinal plants it is necessaryto develop the sensitive and effective technology. Molecular markers can be employed forcharacterization, since the progress made in genetic markers has been exciting. DNA-basedmolecular markers have acted as very useful tools in various fields like taxonomy,physiology, embryology, plant breeding, ecology, genetic engineering etc. DNA basedmarkers have their applications in fingerprinting genotypes, determining the seed purityand in phylogenetic analysis by which the conservation of the plant can be made easy. Theinnovation of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) made the development of DNA basedmarkers easier. Extensive research on molecular markers is in progress in many researchinstitutes all over the world. DNA-based molecular markers have a great utility in the druganalysis and widely used for the characterization of medicinally important plant species.This review is an attempt to evaluate critically the role of different DNA based markers inthe characterization of medicinal plants

HPLC Profiling of B Asarone Content and Cytogenetic Studies of Medicinally Important Indian Acorus Calamus l., Accessions

Acorus calamus L. is a well- known herb for its traditional medicinal and pharmaceutical potentials. The rhizome of the plant is mainly used for medicinal purposes because it yields an essential oil known as “Calamus Oil”. The main component of the essential oil is â-asarone. In our present study, 20 different species of Acorus calamus were collected from different parts of South India and North East India. An attempt has been made to characterize all the accessions on the basis of their ploidy level by cytogenetic studies, and determining â- asarone content by HPLC analysis. All the accessions were screened for their ploidy level by staining the root chromosomes at metaphase stage. The plants observed were either diploid or triploid ruling out any tetraploids. HPLC analysis of powdered rhizome extracts for the â- asarone, indicated that it ranged from 2.2% to 7.2%. Our results also have revealed that there is no correlation between the ploidy status and the content of â-asarone. Indian accessions were found to have low to moderate levels of â- asarone content

Molecular characterization of medicinal and aromatic plants by 5S rRNA NTS and PCR RFLP- A mini review

The use of plants and plant products for medicine is being practiced from time immemorial. The advent of herbal drug technology has led to the production of medicines and pharmaceutical products from herbs. Secondary metabolites from plants are important economically as drugs, fragrances, pigments, food additives and pesticides. In order to protect consumers from adulteration and for conservation of the plants; authentication and identification of medicinal plants is essential. Traditionally, morphological, phytochemical and analytical techniques are used. In recent times molecular marker based methods are used widely. With the advent of PCR based techniques minute quantities of DNA in order of nanograms are sufficient for molecular analysis. These techniques are more advantageous than the classical morphology based or chemical and analytical methods. Recently the nontranscribed sequence (NTS) region of 5S rRNA has been employed for studying intra specific discrimination. In this short review an attempt has been made to study the use of 5S -rRNA NTS region for molecular fingerprinting in plants

Rice breeding for salt tolerance

Human exploitation of earth’s resources is leading to new problems day by day and hence newer methods are devised to overcome the same. One such case is breeding for abiotic stress, utilizing even non arable land, to feed the ever increasing population. A major stress leading to yield loss can be due to inland and coastal salinity. Rice is the most important cereal crop which feeds humans on earth. This review tries to analyse the efforts of breeders in minimising the effects of salt stress on the yield of rice crop

Progress of Biorefinery in India

India is one among the world’s largest economies and its energy demand accounts for 3.5% of world’s commercial energy consumption. According to the International Energy Agency oil demand in India is expected to grow by a factor 2.2 by 2030, increasing the oil import dependency from 69% now to 91%. Rising energy prices and climate change are increasing the demand for biofuel production. The Planning Commission of India recommends replacing 20% of India’s diesel consumption mainly by non-edible Jatropha oil and Pongamia. Biorefinery could be one of the best solutions to overcome the problem. A review on the progress of biorefinery in India is attempted

Molecular Insights into the Genetic Diversity of Garcinia cambogia Germplasm Accessions

ABSTRACTIn this work, the genetic relationship among twelveGarcinia cambogia (Gaertn.) Desr. accessions were evaluated using Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA markers. The samples were part of the germplasm collected and maintained at NBPGR Regional station, Thrissur, India. Out of thirty RAPD primers used for screening, seven primers produced a total of 128 polymorphic markers in twelve accessions. The Polymorphic Information Content (PIC) ranged from 0.28 (OPA18) to 0.37 (OPA9) and Marker Index (MI) ranged between 3.61 (OPA12) and 5.93 (OPA3) among the primers used. Jaccard's coefficient of genetic similarity ranged between 0.07 and 0.64. The dendrogram constructed based on the similarity matrix generated from the molecular and morphological data showed the genetic relationship among the sampled accessions. Mantel matrix test showed a positive correlation (r = 0.49) between the cluster analysis of RAPD data and morphological data. The clustering pattern in the molecular dendrogram and Principle Coordinate Analysis (PCoA) showed that the genotypes were diverse, which was in congruence with the similarity index values and morphological dendrogram. High frequency of similarity values in the range of 0.11 to 0.17 suggested the existence of high genetic diversity among the accessions. The high level of genetic diversity among the studied accessions ofG.cambogia was also supported by the large variation in the morphological characters observed in the flowers, leaves, fruits and seeds of these sampled accessions. This is the first report for the molecular based genetic diversity studies for these accessions

Comparative evaluation of anthelmintic and antibacterial activities in leaves and fruits of Garcinia cambogia (Gaertn.) desr. and Garcinia indica (Dupetit-Thouars) choisy

This study aimed to evaluate the in vitro anthelmintic activity and antibacterial activity of the extracts from the leaves and fruits of Garcinia indica (Dupetit-Thouars) Choisy and Garcinia cambogia(Gaertn.) Desr. using the Indian earthworm Pheretima posthuma. Two concentrations (25 and 50 mg/mL) of various extracts such as petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate, methanol and water were tested. Albendazole at the concentrations of 25 and 50 mg/mL was used as the standard reference. Significant anthelmintic effects of the fruits and leaves of G. cambogia and G. indica (P<0.05) were observed and the results were expressed in terms of paralysis and death time. All the extracts showed the dose dependent paralysis and death of earthworms. Among all the extracts used, methanol extract exhibited the highest activity. G. cambogia leaf extract (50 mg/mL) had 30% faster paralysis effect on earthworms than the standard reference. Furthermore, the antimicrobial activity of the methanol extracts of the fruits and leaves showed significant (P<0.05) activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. At a concentration of 500 µg/mL, G. indica fruit extract presented higher zones of inhibition against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. Hence, it could be concluded that the leaves and fruits of G. indica and G. cambogia contained active anthelmintic and antibacterial phytochemicals, which could find their applications in pharmaceuticals