Abstract
Clematidis Radix (Wei Ling Xian in Chinese and Ireisen in Japanese) is a crude drug used in traditional Chinese medicine and is derived from the underground parts of Clematis plants, which belong to the family Ranunculaceae. The Clematidis Radix sold in modern markets is derived from a variety of botanical origins, whereas the Chinese and Japanese pharmacopoeias state that Clematidis Radix should be produced from Clematis hexapetala, C. mandshurica, or C. chinensis. To clarify the botanical origin of this crude drug, 9 closely related taxa of the genus Clematis growing in East Asia were subjected to molecular biological studies of their internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions. We found that the ITS region nucleotide sequences of the 9 taxa had diverged. As a result, the 9 taxa could be successfully differentiated by comparing their whole ITS region sequences. Based on this result, 11 Clematidis Radix samples obtained from modern Japanese, Chinese, and Korean markets were genetically identified as follows: Of the samples from Japanese markets, 3 out of 4 were categorized as C. mandshurica, and one as C. chinensis. Among the samples from Chinese markets, 2 out of 4 were identified as C. mandshurica, and the other two as C. brachyura. Meanwhile, of the 3 samples from Korean markets, two were identified as C. mandshurica, and the other as C. terniflora var. robusta.
