Print

[EIRN]

In Thailand, there are four Mitragyna species; M. speciosa, M. hirsuta, M. diversifolia, and M. rotundifolia.
One, M. speciosa, is a narcotic plant and has medicinal importance for its opium-like effect. Since the use of M.
speciosa has been forbidden in Thailand, the leaves of M. diversifolia or others are frequently used as substitutes
but are not considered as effective. Therefore, accurate authentication of M. speciosa is essential for both medicinal
and forensic purposes. The nucleotide sequences of internal transcribed spacers (ITS) and the 5.8S coding region
of nuclear ribosomal DNA (rDNA) of the Mitragyna species were analyzed. The whole length of ITS1-5.8SITS2
region was 608 bp in M. speciosa, 607 bp in the other species. Nineteen sites of nucleotide substitutions and
3 sites of 1-bp indels were observed, and M. speciosa showed specific sequence differed from the others. Based on
the ITS sequences, a distinctive site recognized by a restriction enzyme Xma I in M. speciosa was found and then
PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis was established to differentiate M. speciosa
from the others. By the method, a 409-bp PCR fragment of ITS1-5.8S (partial) rDNA region from M. speciosa
was cleaved into two fragments of 119 bp and 290 bp while the other species remained undigested. This method
provides an effective and accurate identification of M. speciosa

2 Likes Roze and LIBERTYNY like this.

[nobody]

Awesome, this was very helpful. Thank you


nobody

1 Like EIRN likes this.

[LIBERTYNY]

Anyone know if the different species cross pollinate ?   

1 Like FewTrueSeed likes this.