Abstract:
Cyclea barbata has been reported as traditional food and medicinal plant. Although its morphology resembles
Cissampelos pareira, Cyclea polypetala and Stephania japonica very closely, chemical compositions of them are significantly
different. Here we showed the capability of a short ITS region (277 nucleotides) for C. barbata identification. The partial ITS and
rbcL regions from 14 samples, collected in many areas of Thailand, were amplified. The results after DNA blast on NCBI
showed that all short ITS sequences closely related to C. barbata. The phylogenic analysis from the ITS and combined ITS/rbcL
data by maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood methods showed that all samples was recognized into C. barbata. The
results of DNA analysis were consistent with morphological identification. Our findings indicated that this short ITS region was
able to distinguish C. barbata from their adulterants. This in turn can reduce cost and time for C. barbata identification using
DNA barcode.