DNA Passport of Indian Catmint (Anisomeles indica) from Northeast India

The plant Anisomeles indica (Lamiaceae) is commonly known as 'Indian Catmint' which is traditionally used as an anticancer and anti-inflammatory and as a source of new anti-metastatic agent for food and pharmaceutical industries. Here, we adopt the plant DNA barcoding technique to develop species level DNA passport for Anisomeles indica based on matK sequence (-800bp) of chloroplast DNA isolated from Anisomeles indica with subsequent amplification and sequencing for species level identification. Our result demonstrated 100% similarity with other Anisomeles indica sequences retrieved from global databases. The phylogeny analysis revealed that Anisomeles indica formed distinctive clusters with its different closely related species assigning correct taxonomic position. We propose that matK gene may be used as DNA passport for medicinal plants.