DNA barcoding application for potential medicinal plants on Ziziphus species from Aketajawe-Lolobata National Park, North Moluccas

Abstract

Abstract Aketajawe-Lolobata National Park is a protected national park located in the province of North Moluccas, Indonesia. The national park has been known to be rich in biodiversity with the existence of many potential medicinal plants such as Ziziphus. DNA barcoding can be a useful tool for identifying and characterizing these plants for potential medical applications. Research and exploration have been conducted in Aketajawe-Lolobata National Park in November and December 2022. This study aimed to analyze how the DNA barcoding regions aid identification for potential medicinal plants. The genomic DNA were amplified by matK primers, and the sequences showed high similarity rate with their homologs, then the phylogenetic tree was constructed using the Neighbor-Joining method to assess their cross-species relationship. The phylogenetic study showed that the species that have been identified based on morphological characters, i.e., Ziziphus angustifolia and Z. mauritiana were clustered with Z. angustifolia and Z. mauritiana retrieved from GenBank. However, the unidentified species are closely related with Z. calophylla obtained from GenBank but with low bootstrap support. All the results indicate that DNA barcoding approach could be successfully used for reliable identification of medicinal plants and matK gene is a good candidate for this approach.