Identification of Ardisiae Japonicae Herba by ITS2 Sequence

Objective: The ITS2 sequence was used to identify Ardisiae Japonicae Herba collected from the market, in order to ensure the medicine quality of the market and to provide a reliable technical method.

Methods: The certified samples, including Ardisia japonica and its adulterants, were 56 samples of 17 species. All the sequences of the samples including six related sequences downloaded from NCBI were analyzed by computing the Kimura 2-parameter (K2P) genetic distance and the neighbor-joining (NJ) phylogenetic tree, then the method of DNA barcoding identification technology of Ardisiae Japonicae Herba based on ITS2 sequence was established. Combined with online comparison of sequences, the method was used to detect 15 samples of Ardisiae Japonicae Herba from the market to distinguish authenticity.

Results: The maximum and the average intra-specific K2P genetic distance of Ardisia japonica were all less than the minimum and the average inter-specific K2P genetic distance, and Ardisia japonica and its adulterants could be separated by computing the NJ phylogenetic tree. The identification results of online comparison and DNA barcoding identification were the same. In all of the 15 samples, 13 of them were genuine, and the other two samples were fake.

Conclusions: The DNA barcoding identification technique method of Ardisiae Japonicae Herba is established based on ITS2 sequence, and it provides a reference method to distinguish the authenticity of Ardisiae Japonicae Herba quickly by gene recognition.