Natural products are gaining increased applications in drug discovery and development. Being chemically diverse they are able to modulate several targets simultaneously in a complex system. Analysis of gene expression becomes necessary for better understanding of molecular mechanisms. Conventional strategies for expression profiling are optimized for single gene analysis. DNA microarrays serve as suitable high throughput tool for simultaneous analysis of multiple genes. Major practical applicability of DNA microarrays remains in DNA mutation and polymorphism analysis. This review highlights applications of DNA microarrays in pharmacodynamics, pharmacogenomics, toxicogenomics and quality control of herbal drugs and extracts.

Phyllanthus emblica LINN. Syn: Emblica officinalis GAERTN. (Indian Gooseberry) family-Euphorbiaceae fruit is one of the top selling botanicals having diverse applications in healthcare, food and cosmetic industry. It has been well studied for immunomodulatory, 1) anticancer, 2) antioxidant 3) and antiulcer 4) activities. An official drug of Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia 5) and Indian Herbal Pharmacopoeia, 6) it forms a main ingredient of various multi-component formulations. Correct genotype identification of the plant material, therefore, remains important for protection of both the public health and industry. Chemoprofiling and morphological evaluation are routinely used for identification of the botanical. Chemical complexity and lack of therapeutic marker(s) are some of the limitations associated with chemical approach while subjective bias in morphological evaluation limits its use.Molecular biology offers various techniques that can be applied for plant identification.7) Genetic polymorphism in medicinal plants has been widely studied which helps in distinguishing plants at inter-and/or intra-species level.8,9) PCRbased methods including Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) 10) can be effectively used for authentication of the medicinal plant material. Further, development of more specific, sensitive and reproducible markers like RAPD based Sequence Characterized Amplified Region (SCAR) can increase industrial application of the molecular techniques. These markers have been used for authentication of medicinal plant species of ginseng, 11) Artemisia 12) and other commercially important timbers like bamboo. 13)In the present study, we have chosen six Phyllanthus species (other than P. emblica) that are commercially and therapeutically important; and are widely used in Ayurvedic system of medicine for treating various ailments.14) SCAR marker for correct genotype identification of P. emblica from a species-specific RAPD amplicon is developed by comparative analysis. The marker is further used for authentication of commercial samples of P. emblica fruit powders (Amlachurna) as well as Triphalachurna, a multi-component formulation which contains fruit powders of P. emblica, Terminalia chebula ROTZ. and Terminalia belerica ROXB. MATERIALS AND METHODS Plant MaterialFresh leaf tissues of Phyllanthus distichus LINN., Phyllanthus reticulatus POIR., Phyllanthus urinaria LINN., Phyllanthus simplex RETZ., Phyllanthus niruri LINN. and Phyllanthus indofischeri BENNET. were collected from different parts of India (three samples of each species) and authenticated in Agharkar research Institute, Pune, India. Leaf tissues of eleven cultivars of P. emblica viz.; NA-06, NA-07, NA-10, Kanchan, Chakaiya, Francis, Banarasi, Hathizool, Dongri, Bansired and Anand-01 were collected from standard cultivated plots of Mahatma Phule Agricultural University, Rahuri, India. The collected fresh tissues were powdered in liquid nitrogen and stored in deep freezer (Ϫ70°C) till further processing.Three commercial P. emblica fruit powder sample...

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Zingiber officinale Roscoe (common or culinary ginger) is an official drug in Ayurvedic, Indian herbal, Chinese, Japanese, African and British Pharmacopoeias. The objective of the present study was to develop DNA-based markers that can be applied for the identification and differentiation of the commercially important plant Z. officinale Roscoe from the closely related species Zingiber zerumbet (pinecone, bitter or 'shampoo' ginger) and Zingiber cassumunar [cassumunar or plai (Thai) ginger]. The rhizomes of the other two Zingiber species used in the present study are morphologically similar to that of Z. officinale Roscoe and can be used as its adulterants or contaminants. Various methods, including macroscopy, microscopy and chemoprofiling, have been reported for the quality control of crude ginger and its products. These methods are reported to have limitations in distinguishing Z. officinale from closely related species. Hence, newer complementary methods for correct identification of ginger are useful. In the present study, RAPD (random amplification of polymorphic DNA) analysis was used to identify putative species-specific amplicons for Z. officinale. These were further cloned and sequenced to develop SCAR (sequence-characterized amplified region) markers. The developed SCAR markers were tested in several non-Zingiber species commonly used in ginger-containing formulations. One of the markers, P3, was found to be specific for Z. officinale and was successfully applied for detection of Z. officinale from Trikatu, a multicomponent formulation.

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