Planta Med 1999; 65(1): 83-85
DOI: 10.1055/s-2006-960447
Letter

© Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York

Identification of Melissa officinalis Subspecies by DNA Fingerprinting

Hans-Thomas Wolf1 , Thomas van den Berg2 , Franz-Christian Czygan2 , Armin Mosandl3 , Thomas Winckler1 , Ilse Zündorf1 , Theodor Dingermann1
  • 1Institut für Pharmazeutische Biologie, Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt/M., Germany
  • 2Julius-von-Sachs-Institut für Biowissenschaften mit Botanischem Garten, Würzburg, Germany
  • 3Institut für Lebensmittelchemie, Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt/M., Germany
Further Information

Publication History

1998

1998

Publication Date:
04 January 2007 (online)

Abstract

The random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis (RAPD) is a method to study genetic variability within and between populations and species on the basis of the amplification of anonymous fragments from genomic DNA templates by means of polymerase chain reaction (PCR). We applied RAPD analysis in order to distinguish medicinal plant subspecies at the level of their genomes. In this study we investigated various samples of two Melissa subspecies and showed that RAPD analysis is a fast and reliable method to distinguish subspecies on the pharmaceutical market that have been previously classified according to the distribution pattern of compounds present in the lemon balm oil.

    >