Revista de genética y mejoramiento vegetal

Abstracto

Chloroplast genome sequencing of Withania species of high medicicinal value

Furrukh Mehmood

Withania genus of family Solanaceae is well known for its medicinal plants. Its two commonly found species in Pa- kistan are Withania somnifera and Withania coagulens. Several pharmacological activities of these plants including antinociceptive, anti-inflammatory, antidepressant, and anticoagulant potential have been reported. Previ- ously, we identified, isolated, and characterized several pharmacologically important compounds (withanolide and their derivatives) from W. coagulens. Our results support earlier reports that this plant has immense medicinal potential. Species of Withania are morphologically similar due to which identification of species is a challenge especially in dry or powder form. Recently, several studies reported whole chloroplast (cp) genome base markers as authentic, robust, and effective tools for identification of species. In this study, the chloroplast genome of W. somnif- era and W. coagulans has been sequenced.