Authentication on the Dai medicinal herb “Dai-Bai-Jie” using molecular and morphological data

Abstract

As a traditional Dai medicine, “Dai-Bai-Jie” is a kind of antidote, and its source plant was firstly recorded as Dregea sinensis. Currently, the source plant has been corrected as Marsdenia tenacissima. In order to further clarify the source plants of “Dai-Bai-Jie”, we carried out an integrated analysis of the source plants of “Dai-Bai-Jie” and its related species in this study. Our key results were as follows: (1) Phylogenetic relationship of Marsdenia and other species of Marsdenieae using three DNA fragments (psbD-trnT, trnL-trnF, ITS) showed that all “Dai-Bai-Jie” samples were supported as monophyletic with the sample of M. tenacissima, and were sister to M. cavaleriei. (2) Comparative analyses of morphological characters with type specimen proved that morphological characters of the “Dai-Bai-Jie” samples were consistent with those of the type specimen of M. tenacissima and obviously different from those of M. cavaleriei. In this study, the source plant of “Dai-Bai-Jie” was identified as the species M. tenacissima. Meanwhile, it was easy to discriminate from M. cavaleriei in the leaf and floral characters. According to both morphological and molecular evidence, it has been confirmed that the source plant of “Dai-Bai-Jie” is M. tenacissima that can be used for rapid and accurate authentication of medicinal herbs in the market, and also benefit for the development and utilization of the “Dai-bai-jie” medicine in future.

Keywords

• “dai-bai-jie”
• source plant
• molecular phylogeny
• morphology
• authentication