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rbcL, a potential candidate DNA barcode loci for aconites: conservation of himalayan aconites

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Abstract

Background

Aconitum heterophyllum Wall. ex Royle and Aconitum balfourii Stapf, are two highly important, threatened medicinal plants of the Indian Himalayan Region. Root-tubers of Aconites have occupied an important place in Indian pharmacopoeia from very ancient times. India is a hub of the wild-collected medicinal herbs industry in Asia and these two aconites are known to have been heavily traded from the region in illicit manner. Prosecution of these illegal trading crimes is hampered by lack of pharma-forensic expertise and tools.

Methods and results

Present study was conducted to evaluate the discriminatory potential of rbcL, a Chloroplast based DNA barcode marker for the authentication of these two Himalayan Aconites. Fresh plant samples were collected from their natural distributional range as well as raw materials were procured from herbal market and a total of 32 sequences were generated for the rbcL region. Analysis demonstrated that rbcL region can successfully be used for authentication and importantly, both the aconites, were successfully discriminated by rbcL locus with high bootstrap support (> 50%).

Conclusion

Molecular markers could certainly be relied upon morphological and chemical markers being tissue specific, having a higher discriminatory power and not age dependent. Phylogenetic analysis using Maximum Likelihood Method revealed that the rbcL gene could successfully discriminate Himalayan Aconites to species level and have potential to be used in pharma-forensic applications as well as to curb illicit trade of these invaluable medicinal plants.

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Data Availability

The sequence data is available in NCBI GenBank.

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Acknowledgements

The work was financially supported by Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), Dehradun as a research project [FRI-619/Bot-81]. We thank to the Director Forest Research Institute, Dehradun for providing facility for laboratory and field works. The forest department of Uttarakhand, India also duly acknowledged for their assistance and permissions in surveys and sample collection from the forest area under their jurisdiction.

Funding

The work was financially supported by Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) as research Project [FRI-619/Bot-81].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Systematic Botany Discipline, Forest Botany Division, Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, India

    Ranjana K. Negi, Pooja Nautiyal, Rajneesh Bhatia & Rakesh Verma

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  1. Ranjana K. Negi
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  2. Pooja Nautiyal
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  3. Rajneesh Bhatia
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Contributions

RKN involved in project conceptualization, execution and manuscript writing; PN and R conducted the laboratory work; RKN and PN carried out sequence data analysis; R and RV conducted field visits for sample collection.

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Correspondence to Ranjana K. Negi.

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Negi, R.K., Nautiyal, P., Bhatia, R. et al. rbcL, a potential candidate DNA barcode loci for aconites: conservation of himalayan aconites. Mol Biol Rep 48, 6769–6777 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-021-06675-5

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