Pilocarpine content and molecular diversity in jaborandi

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Pilocarpine is an imidazol alkaloid exclusively found in Pilocarpus genus and P. microphyllus accumulates its highest content in the leaves. There is no report in the literature on the variability of the pilocarpine content in this genus. A population of 20 genotypes of P. microphyllus from the state of Maranhão, Brazil, was analyzed for Random Amplification of Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers and pilocarpine content. Although it was not possible to establish any correlation between these features, th…