Planta Med 2012; 78 - P_124
DOI: 10.1055/s-0032-1307632

DNA-based Identification of Peucedanum ostruthium by High-Resolution-Melting Analysis (HRM)

C Schmiderer 1, C Franz 1, J Novak 1
  • 1Institute for Applied Botany – University of Veterinary Medicine, Veterinärplatz 1, A-1210 Vienna, Austria

Masterwort (Peucedanum ostruthium, Apiaceae) is an old economic plant in Europe, where the roots are traditionally used in Alpine regions in folk medicine and as a spirit. The genus Peucedanum, closely related to Angelica, is regarded as difficult to unambiguously identify. Therefore, plant collection from the wild may often lead to wrongly identified drug materials. DNA-based authentication of drugs has become a good complement to morphological phytochemical identification methods, especially suitable for processed drug materials difficult to identify. Here we present a DNA-based approach to identify P. ostruthium by High-Resolution-Melting-Analysis (HRM analysis).

The species can be distinguished from other Peucedanum and generally Apiaceae species by using a combination of two ITS primer pairs in HRM analysis. The first primer pair from ITS1 [A] distinguishes P. ostruthium from all species but P. alsaticum and P. terebinthaceum, while the second primer pair from ITS2 [B] is able to distinguish P. ostruthium from all species but P. cervaria.

Acknowledgement: The financial support of FWF, Project S 10708-B03, is gratefully acknowledged.