Molecular Markers Associated With Chemical Analysis: A Powerful Tool for Quality Control Assessment of Copalchi Medicinal Plant Complex

Abstract

The copalchi complex, Hintonia latiflora, H. standleyana, and Exostema caribaeum, is widely used in Mexico for treating diabetes and gastrointestinal disorders. The first therapeutic use for H. latiflora bark was registered in the “Florentine Codex” in the sixteenth century. The latest pharmacological and phytochemical studies revealed that the infusion of the leaves have hypoglycemic, antihyperglycemic and gastroprotective activities. For these reasons the monograph of the main copalchi species, H. latiflora, was recently added to the Mexican Herbal Pharmacopoeia. Nevertheless, quality control parameters are focused to the bark but not to the leaves. Moreover, information about other Rubiaceae species is needed. The main goal of this study was to generate molecular and chemical markers for quality control of the copalchi complex raw material. In addition, the resolution of the taxonomical ambiguity between H. latiflora and H. standleyana, as well as the testing of the molecular and chemical markers in different geographical batches, were aims of this study. The molecular markers and chemical profiles of the leaf infusions were generated considering three different populations for H. latiflora and separate individuals of the three species (HL, n = 10; HS, n = 3; EC, n = 4). The molecular markers matK, rbcL, trnH-psbA, rpl32-trnL, and ITS2 were tested for their discriminating capabilities. Chemical profiles of the leaf infusions were obtained by means of HPLC analyses using chlorogenic acid and 4-phenylcoumarins as chemical markers. The concatenated sequence of the molecular markers trnH-psbA, rpl32-trnL, and ITS2 clearly distinguished the three taxa, clarifying the taxonomical ambiguity of the Hintonia genus. Additionally, the chemical profiles allowed the unequivocal identification of each species supporting the molecular results; the geographical origin of the samples did not modify neither the chemical profiles nor the concatenated sequence of H. latiflora, suggesting that it is a robust identity test. The complementary use of molecular and chemical markers will assure the quality of plant material used in traditional medicine for therapeutic purposes, and should be valuable new information for the National Health authorities as a part of the Mexican Herbal Pharmacopoeia.

Comparative Analyses of Chloroplast Genome Provide Effective Molecular Markers for Species and Cultivar Identification in Bougainvillea

“…In general, approximately all the nodes received high support rates, ranging from 82% to 100%, indicating that the topological structure of the phylogenetic tree had high credibility. In order to identify different cultivars of Bougainvillea, we constructed a phylogenetic analysis of 53 cultivars based on three plastid regions, trnH-psbA, trnL intron, and trnL-trnF, which were commonly applied to distinguish the genetic backgrounds of diverse species [20][21][22][23]. The result showed that these three regions did not evaluate the species classification clearly (Figure S1), compared with the topological tree of Bougainvillea (Figure 6).…”

Chloroplast genomes of Rubiaceae: Comparative genomics and molecular phylogeny in subfamily Ixoroideae

“…Molecular phylogenetic analyses of Rubiaceae have been carried out using either nuclear sequences (ETS, ITS, 5S-NTS, pep-C large, pep-V small, PI, Tpi), plastid DNA sequences (accD-psa1, atpB-rbcL, ndhF, matK, petD, rbcL, rpl16, rpl32-trnL, rps16, trnG, trnH-psbA, trnL-F, trnT-L, trnS-G) or a combination of both [7,11,12,13,14]. Altogether, more than twenty markers (fourteen from cpDNA and seven nuclear) have been used for Rubiaceae phylogeny reconstruction, the most popular being ITS and rbcL.…”

Essential Oil Chemotypes and Genetic Variability of Cinnamomum verum Leaf Samples Commercialized and Cultivated in the Amazon

“…The complementary use of chemical and molecular markers for quality control achievement of the C. verum species and other plant materials should be tested in commercialized leaves and in herbal preparations. The identification of adulterants, fillers and/or substitutes could be accomplished only if the molecular databases of medicinal plants are enriched with more studies [ 67 , 68 ].…”