Combination of DNA isolation and RP-HPLC analysis method for bark samples of Saraca asoca and its adulterant

Population genetic and phytochemical dataset of Saraca asoca: A traditionally important medicinal tree

The data presented in this article is in support of the research paper "Genetic and phytochemical investigations for understanding population variability of the medicinally important tree Saraca asoca to help develop conservation strategies" Hegde et al., 2018. This article provides PCR based Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) and HPLC datasets of 106 individual samples of Saraca asoca collected from various geographical ranges of the Western Ghats of India. The ISSR data includes information on genetic diversity and images of population structures generated through amplified DNA products from samples of Saraca asoca leaf. Phytochemical data obtained from HPLC includes concentration (mg/g) of gallic acid (GA), catechin (CAT), and epicatechin (EPI). The data also presents information obtained from various statistical analysis viz. standard error of the mean values, distribution variables, prediction accuracy, and multiple logistic regression analysis.

Molecular identification of Saraca asoca from its substituents and adulterants

ABSTRACT

Saraca asoca (Roxb.) De Wilde is an important medicinal plant from the Western Ghats of India, traditionally used in treatment of various gynecological disorders. Increasing commercial demand and decreasing numbers has resulted in this plant becoming endangered with crude drug materials being extensively substituted/adulterated with other plant species. The present study was undertaken with the objective of development and evaluation of multivariate cluster analysis of ISSR fingerprints against rbcL-based DNA barcodes as tool to understand the relationships and to differentiate common adulterants and substituents from S. asoca. ISSR-based Hierarchical Cluster Analysis was carried out on 41 samples of S. asoca and 5 each of the 5 common substituent/adulterant plants and the clustering patterns were evaluated against DNA-sequence-based barcoding of rbcL region of their plastids. Factorial analysis and Principal Coordinate Analysis revealed distinct groups of genetic pools of respective taxa thereby confirming the utility of ISSR fingerprinting as a useful tool for differentiation between the genuine and the adulterants/substituents. NCBI-BLAST search on DNA barcode rbcL region confirmed the results of ISSR assays. Therefore, our study demonstrated the utility of simple, cost-effective method of ISSR fingerprinting coupled with rbcL barcoding in differentiating this important medicinal plant from its common adulterants/substituents.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT