Molecular markers applied to Lippia sidoides and Lippia salvifolia differentiation

• Grant number: 11/11756-3
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: December 01, 2011
• End date: November 30, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Plant Genetics
• Principal Investigator: Sonia Marli Zingaretti
• Grantee: Sonia Marli Zingaretti
• Host Institution: Universidade de Ribeirão Preto (UNAERP). Campus Ribeirão Preto. Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Ana Maria Soares Pereira ; Bianca Waleria Bertoni

Abstract

Brazil has the biggest plant diversity in the word, with thousands of cataloged species, potentially contributing to the development of medicine, industry and agriculture. Scientific research on medicinal plants in the fields of botany, agronomy, photochemistry, genetics and pharmacology have increased in recent years attempting to validate bioactive compounds for therapeutic purposes. Among thousands of species there are over two hundred species of the genus Lippia that are heavily used by traditional communities and studied from the standpoint of ethnobotanical, chemical and pharmacological properties. The results of this research has confirmed the following activities: anti-inflammatory, larvicide, hypotensive, sedative, analgesic, carminative, antimicrobial, cytotoxic, antioxidant, among others. However, classical taxonomy has not been able to separate the species Lippia sidoides e Lippia salvifolia on the basis of their morphological similarities. Some published studies with these species show that thymol is a major component on L. sidoides and that carvacrol is accumulated in L. salvifolia. However, other studies show the opposite. The inconsistency of published data on both species has hindered the development of antimicrobial drugs and products from these species. Because of this, this project proposes to characterize and Lippia sidoides and Lippia salvifolia using ITS and AFLP molecular markers to improve de differentiation of both species and the differential expression between the two species, the expression of related compounds thymol and Carvacrol. (AU)