Format: ORAL

Umapathy Senthilkumar1*, Chatterjee Abhinav2, Kaliappan Ilango3, Parani Madasamy4

1DNA Barcoding Laboratory, Department of Botany, Madras Christian College (Autonomous), Chennai, Tamil Nadu- 600059, India. 2Department of Biotechnology, School of Bioengineering, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, Tamil Nadu- 603203, India. 3Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, Tamil Nadu- 603203, India. 4Department of Genetic Engineering, School of Bioengineering, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, Tamil Nadu- 603203, India.

Authentic species of Parpataka (Hypertelis Oldenlandia) and Gokshura (Tribulus terrestris) are well known due to their synergistic effect with other herbs for anti-pyretic activity and urinary disorders respectively. The vernacular conflicts and its co-existence with other morphologically similar species lead to unintentional adulteration in the trade. To validate both i.e. Parpadaka and Gokshura, the samples were purchased from herbal raw drug stores across India for Gokshura and within southern India for Parpataka. These samples were further validated using rbcL gene of chloroplast for Parpataka and ITS2 region of nuclear genome for Gokshura respectively. DNA from the market samples was extracted and amplified with the selected barcodes and validated using Bayesian phylogenetic framework in MrBayes 3.2. Trade analysis of parpadaka samples revealed five different species of Molluginaceae and a species of Oldenlandia in the trade. The tree showed nearly 72.5% of Hypertelis umbellata, found in Indian trade for the first time and thus were achieved as a new report to India from this study since there was no report on its natural occurrence in any regional flora. Out of the remaining 27.5%, four different species of Mollugo s.l resulted into 17.5%. In Gokshura, Tribulus lanuginosus had replaced the T. terrestris (an authentic species) with 40.7% and T. subramanyamii, an endemic species had replaced it with 18.5%. Our results show that, market samples of Parpataka sold in southern India contains few substitutes, though among them, H. umbellata showed the cryptic nature with its counterpart i.e. H. cerviana, was predominant and completely replaced the authentic substitute in the indigenous trade. Similarly, in case of Gokshura, Tribulus had showed high degree of cryptic nature along with its counterpart i.e. T. subramanyamii that evident by means its prevalence in the trade.