Molecular phylogenetic analysis among five species of Spilanthes Jacq

Abstract

DNA isolation and barcoding of medicinal plants are getting a great previlege and demand in recent years. Authentification using molecular markers is necessary for identifying correct raw material for herbal market in the preparation of new formulation in ayurvedic industry. The molecular characterization of Spilanthes species has not been reported in the literature. In the present study, attempts were made to optimize DNA isolation using the CTAB method and characterize five species of Spilanthes. Matk and rbcL primers are universal primers used to distinguish five Spilanthes species and their inter relationship were analysed using Clustal omega tool to draw the phylogeny tree. Thus from the study S. ciliata and S. calva showed similar banding pattern, similarly S. paniculata showed similar sequence pattern from phylogeny tree analysis. The work can provide an effective tool for scientific identification of plants in pharmaceutical industry and also help in investigations relating to characterization of this genus.