Abstract

The roots of Fallopia multiflora are widely used in Chinese medicine for their anti-inflammatory prosperities. While recently, F. multiflora has been found to be adulterated with some species with similar morphologies but little or different biological activity due to its natural resource deficiency. The discrimination of F. multiflora from its adulterants is currently limited to methods of morphology and chemical fingerprinting. To distinguish F. multiflora from its adulterants efficiently, the chloroplast atpB-rbcL intergenic spacers of them were sequenced and analyzed, and one pair of diagnostic primers were designed for differentiating F. multiflora from its adulterants. This technique provided accurate, effective, and rapid approaches to distinguish F. multiflora from the adulterants.

Key words: Fallopia multiflora, atpB-rbcL intergenic spacers, diagnostic polymerase chain reaction, adulterants, molecular authentication.