Abstract

The present study was carried out to develop appropriate molecular markers to distinguish genuine herbal medicine Prunella asiatica growing in Jiangsu province at both species and population level. Two putative markers, which are specific for P. asiatica species and its habitat respectively, were identified by random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD). Respectively, two sequence characterized amplified region (SCAR) markers were further developed from the two RAPD markers above. The amplification using P. asiatica-specific SCAR marker showed that Prunella vulgaris, P. asiatica and Prunella hispida could be regarded as one species in the taxonomy. The amplification of another SCAR marker was closely linked to region-specific. The results showed that this newly developed molecular marker method could be considered as a convenient and reliable method for the genuineness identification of Spica prunellae. Moreover, the taxonomic modification ofPrunella species including P. vulgaris, P. asiatica and P. hispida was also discussed in this paper.

Key words: Prunella asiatica, species-specific, region-specific, random amplification of polymorphic DNA - sequence characterized amplified region marker.