ABSTRACT:
In Ancient time when the traditional medicines were developed, standardization and quality control of Ayurvedic formulation was maintained by fully committed and professional. Due to process of evolution, commercialization and environmental effects identification and quality control of botanicals become more difficult. Other factors like cultivation, collection and environmental variation also created difficulties in standardization of traditional formulations. Chromatographic techniques like TLC, HPLC and HPTLC requires chemical markers that are therapeutically active and has its own limitations. Secondary plant metabolites that are used as marker may change due to environmental factors and hence correct identification of botanicals is a difficult task. Each herb contains large number of compounds, so it is not possible to analyze the presence or absence of all compounds quantitatively or qualitatively. These serious difficulties in testing of active principal or chemical constituents are well known. Random amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) techniques based on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is one of the most commonly used molecular techniques to develop DNA markers. RAPD markers are amplification products of anonymous DNA sequences using single, short and arbitrary oligonucleotide primers, and thus do not require prior knowledge of a DNA sequence. Low expense, efficiency in developing large number of DNA markers in a short time and requirement of less sophisticated equipment has made the RAPD technique valuable for identification of components in traditional preparation and in development of fingerprints for traditional formulations.