Characterization and identification of alfalfa and red clover dietary supplements using a PCR-based method.
The use of herbal remedies is very popular in the United States, with >80 million people buying plant-derived preparations that are often highly degraded or potentially contaminated with nonefficacious plant material. A method utilizing DNA-based markers to identify highly fragmented or powdered plant material sold as botanicals in dietary supplements has been developed. By incorporating and streamlining a repair reaction that utilized fill-in and ligation reactions before the PCR steps, it was possible to amplify highly degraded or sheared DNA isolated from powdered plant material removed from over-the-counter capsules. The primers for the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of nuclear ribosomal DNA generate a PCR fragment compatible with the sizes of the repaired DNA. Moreover, a large data set in Genbank facilitated subsequent analysis. This method is a relatively rapid and simple system to facilitate the authentication, as well as the monitoring, of the purity of botanicals in dietary supplements, even those that are improperly dried or stored.
Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, 90095-1606, USA.
Andree
A
LeRoy
Ellie
E
Potter
Ho-Hyung
HH
Woo
David
D
Heber
Ann M
AM
Hirsch
D001483:Base Sequence; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D019587:Dietary Supplements / Q000592:standards*; D000455:Medicago sativa / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D029921:Trifolium / Q000235:genetics*
D018744:DNA, Plant