Abstract

Accurate identification of important plants is essential for their safety, efficacy and herbal remedies. A total of four medicinal plants were attempted to be identified using DNA barcoding approach during this study. Genomic DNA was extracted from plant samples followed by their amplification by conventional PCR approach. Short sequence diversity of standardized specific coding gene regions of matK gene of plastid genome was used to compare and differentiate the plant species. Subsequently, all the samples were purified and sequenced successfully. A phylogenetic tree was constructed to assess their cross-species relationship. All the samples showed high similarity rate with their homologues after blast them in NCBI database. Phylogenetic study showed distinguish relationship with each other. All the result indicates that DNA barcoding approach could be successfully used for reliable identification of medicinal plants and matK gene is a good candidate for this approach.

Key words: DNA barcode, medicinal plant, matK gene, species identification, phylogeny