Abstract

USE OF DNA SEQUENCING AS ADVANCED TOOL IN TAXONOMIC AUTHENTICATION AND PHYLOGENY OF GEOPHYTES OF MEDICINAL IMPORTANCE.

Sanjay Jagtap*

Abstract

Curcuma pseudomontana J. Graham belongs to the family Zingiberaceae, commonly known as Hill Turmeric. It is an endemic geophyte to the Western and Eastern Ghats, of peninsular India. C. pseudomontana rhizome is beneficial against leprosy, dysentery, cardiac diseases. The Savara, Bagata, Valmiki tribes of Andhra Pradesh use tuber extracts to cure jaundice and Bagata tribes use this plant for Diabetes. Taxonomic identification of rhizomes and crude powders of traditional medicinal plants is becoming a great challenge as per classical plant taxonomy. The accuracy of authentication has limitations because of the amounts of samples, the stability of chemical constituents, the variable sources and the chemical complexity DNA sequencing, are useful for the authentication and standardization of medicinal plant species The present study deals with generation of rbcl gene sequences from Curcuma pseudomontana and its phylogenetic relationship with other species of the genus Curcuma.

Keywords: DNA sequencing, Hill turmeric, Geophyte, Western Ghats.