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Planta Med 2006; 72(1): 89-92
DOI: 10.1055/s-2005-916228
Letter
© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York

Differentiation of Dendrobium Species used as ”Huangcao Shihu” by rDNA ITS Sequence Analysis

Hong Xu1 , 2 , Zhengtao Wang1 , 2 , Xiaoyu Ding3 , Kaiya Zhou3 , Luoshan Xu2
  • 1Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, P. R. China
  • 2Department of Pharmacognosy, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, P. R. China
  • 3College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, P. R. China
Further Information

Publication History

Received: March 25, 2005

Accepted: June 1, 2005

Publication Date:
05 December 2005 (online)

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Abstract

The genus Dendrobium Sw. is composed of 74 species and two varieties in China, and 32 species carry the name ”Huangcao Shihu” on the herbal medicine market, making the identification of the origin of ”Huangcao Shihu” difficult for consumers. Here, the ITS regions were sequenced and evaluated to differentiate the 18 Dendrobium species used as ”Huangcao Shihu”. Diversity in DNA sequences among various species was found with the inter-specific sequence divergence ranging from 3.2 % to 37.9 % in ITS1 and 5.0 % to 26.6 % in ITS2. Moreover, the variations within species were very low, ranging in sequence divergence from 0 to 3.0 % in ITS1 and 0 to 4.0 % in ITS2. Therefore, these species could be easily distinguished at the DNA level. Furthermore, based on the divergent ITS regions, five pairs of species-specific primers were designed and used for the rapid PCR identification of five Dendrobium species listed in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia.

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Prof. Zhengtao Wang

Institute of Chinese Materia Medica

Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Shanghai 201203

People’s Republic of China

Fax: +86-21-5132-2519

Email: wangzht@hotmail.com