title: DNA identification of Salvia divinorum samples.
abstract: Salvia divinorum (diviner's sage) is a plant in the mint family that produces an hallucinogenic compound, salvinorin A. The plant is used, often by chewing or smoking, as a "recreational" drug source and is regulated or banned in several states and countries. We describe a simple DNA technique, polymerase chain reaction of the ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase large subunit (rbcL) gene, that can distinguish S. divinorum leaf pieces from pieces of tobacco or cannabis. We have also found DNA sequences adjacent to the chloroplast leucine transfer RNA (trnL) gene that are specific to S. divinorum and distinguish it from other horticulturally popular Salvia species. We report some significant differences between the S. divinorum trnL sequences we determined and those now published in GenBank.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Biology, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA. tmmurphy@ucdavis.edu
authors.forename: Terence M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.forename: Gurpreet
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bola
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D027544:Salvia / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D018744:DNA, Plant