Biomolecular Technology Group

An Investigation into The Viability of DNA Barcoding and 1H NMR in the Authentication of Echinacea Herbal products (Jordan Boulton Master by Research student)

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Echinacea purpurea products are among the top selling herbal products and used for reducing many symptoms of cold, flu and some other illnesses, infections, and conditions. Echinacea products are also used as sports supplements to indirectly increase Erythropoietin (EPO), a hormone that increases red blood cell levels. The market for herbal products has increased rapidly over the last few decades, but this has in turn increased the opportunities for malpractices such as contamination or substitution of products with alternative plant species. A study into Echinacea herbal products showed that 11% had no Echinacea present.

DNA barcoding is a technique used for authentication of herbal medicines due to its potential as a highly specific and cost-effective tool, but as of yet there is no a validated standard procedure for Echinacea purpurea authentication and this project aims to fill this gap.

The full chloroplast genomes of the nine Echinacea species present on NCBI database have been studied to find differences and potential regions for primers design to be used for DNA barcoding and High-Resolution Melting curve analysis. Six out of nine Echinacea species have been sourced and have been grown from seeds to test the primers specificity.

The newly designed primers will be also tested against common contaminants and with Echinacea based products available over the counter.

1H Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) will also be used to testing different parts of Echinacea plants (roots, stem, leaves and flower) and over the counter Echinacea’s products and common contaminants. Results will be analysed and compared with the DNA results.

 

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Investigating the adulteration and/or contamination of Stephania tetrandra in Traditional Chinese Medicines (Weronika Dziawgo Master by Research student)

 

Stephania tetrandra is a Chinese herb commonly used for obesity treatment. However, in late 90’ around 100 cases of renal failure, in which 70% of these were already in end-stage, were reported in Belgium in people who consumed diet pills allegedly containing Stephania tetrandra. The correlation between the time of introduction of those supplements and the appearance of chronic kidney disease led the scientists to a conclusion that the culprit must had been one of the diet pills components. After insightful analysis, it was discovered that the substance labelled in the ingredients as Stephania tetrandra was in fact Aristolochia fangchi.

The main aim of the study is to investigate whether commercial products advertised as containing Stephania tetrandra were not actually substituted with hazardous Aristolochia fangchi or more generally with other Fang ji plants. To achieve that DNA barcoding techniques will be used as first. Sanger sequencing will be performed on the ITS region. Oxford Nanopore MinION sequencer will be used as well. The final aim is to develop a rapid, robust and reliable Recombinase Polymerase Amplification combined with a vertical flow visualisation strip to replace PCR.

 

 

DNA authentication of medicinal plants and herbal products

• The development of DNA based methods for the identification and authentication of Hypericum perforatum (St John’s Wort). Caroline Howard PhD project.

• Authentication and investigation of potential hepatoxicity of Black Cohosh products . Sarah Williams PhD Project

• Development of Networks for the DNA barcoding of National Plant Collections. With Brooksby College, Melton, UK. 

 

DNA tests for industrial quality assurance

• VITANGO. EU FP7 Marie Curie IAPP award with Dr Willmar Schwabe Pharmaceuticals, Karlsruhe, Germany. March 2012 – Feb 2016.. Focus on development of DNA authentication tests for Rhodiola rosea and other Schwabe products.

• Authentication of Hyperidrine. Research collaboration with Bio‐Health, UK, on the authenticity of Hypericum perforatum raw materials and products.

• Second laboratory testing of DNA methods and standards for the British Pharmacopoeia, MHRA, 2014-15

• DNA tests for toxic weed contamination of herbal medicines. With NIBSC-MHRA and Pukka Herbs

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Technology development

• PlantID – a system for the identification of plant material by DNA profiling. 2009. East Midlands Healthcare and Bioscience iNet Higher Education Collaboration Fund (with Dr E Graham [East Midlands Forensic Pathology Unit]).

 

• PlantDASH – a system for the identification of plant material. 2011. East Midlands Healthcare and Bioscience iNet Higher Education Collaboration Fund (with Professor A Brookes, Leicester University, Department of Genetics).

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Ethnopharmacology

• The use of traditional herbal medicines in the South Asian communities of Leicester, with Michael Heinrich, UCL, London, UK.

 

• The Tulsi project – a case study in molecular ethnopharmacy. Sukvinder Bhamra PhD project, with Peter Nick, KIT, Karlsruhe, Germany, and Eike Reich, CAMAG, Switzerland.

• The study of molecular phylogeny of an ethno-medicinally important plant taxon (Ericaceae) for developing models of evolutionary history for various applications in biology. Indian DBT Award of Biotechnology Overseas Research Associateship to Dr Dipanwita Banik. 2015-2016