DNA Sequencing to Identify Zoological Origin of Commercial Pheretima from Chinese Herbal Markets and Discussion on Its Herbal Textual Research
Abstract:Objective:To clarify the zoological of commercial pheretima(Dilong)in herbal markets and improve the quality of the traditional medicine,the zoological origin of commercial pheretima in Chinese herbal markets was identified and its herbal textual research was discussed.Methods:The commercial medicinal of pheretima samples was randomly collected from 7 major herbal markets,such as Anguo,Bozhou,and so on.The DNA was extracted,the COI fragment was amplified by PCR and the DNA sequencing was analyzed.The sequencing analysis results were compared with the reference database of pheretima and the major herbal was investigated and arranged.Results:The commercial pheretima origin from 34 species,zoological origin of 22% samples was Amynthas aspergillum,22% was Metaphire vulgaris,and less than 1% was M.guillelmi or A.pectinifera.Zoological origin of 55% specimens are not listed in Chinese pharmacopoeia,and the main species origin was M.magna.The result of herbal textual research showed that pheretima was a multi-origin herbal in ancient herbal textual,the morphological characteristics of earthworms which with “white neck” was used in Chinese herbal medicines.The origin of pheretima changed several times in ancient herbal textual and standard documents.Conclusion:The study puts forward establish new reasonable,effective quality control methods for pheretima.