Komatsu K, Zhu S, Fushimi H, Qui T K, Cai S, Kadota S
Institute of Natural Medicine, Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Japan.
Planta Med. 2001 Jul;67(5):461-5. doi: 10.1055/s-2001-15821.
Panax vietnamensis was discovered recently in Vietnam. Its bamboo-like rhizomes, called Vietnamese Ginseng, have attracted considerable attention because of their specific pharmacological activities. In order to define the taxonomic position of this new species and include it in the molecular authentication of Ginseng drugs, the 18S ribosomal RNA gene and matK gene sequences of P. vietnamensis were determined and compared with those of its related taxa, P. japonicus var. major and P. pseudo-ginseng subsp. himalaicus, besides previously reported P. ginseng, P. japonicus and P. quinquefolius. The 18S rRNA gene sequences were found to be 1809 bps in length. The sequence of P. vietnamensis was identical to that of P. quinquefolius, and presented one base substitution from those of both P. japonicus var. major and P. pseudo-ginseng subsp. himalaicus. The matK gene sequences of 6 taxa were found to be 1509 bps in length. The sequence of P. vietnamensis differed from those of P. japonicus var. major, P. pseudo-ginseng subsp. himalaicus, P. ginseng, P. japonicus and P. quinquefolius at 4, 5, 9, 9 and 10 nucleotide positions, respectively. The phylogenetic tree reconstructed by the combined 18S rRNA-matK gene analysis using the maximum parsimony method showed that P. vietnamensis was sympatric with other Panax species and had a close relationship with P. japonicus var. major and P. pseudo-ginseng subsp. himalaicus.
越南人参最近在越南被发现。其竹状根茎，即越南人参，因其特定的药理活性而备受关注。为了确定这个新物种的分类地位并将其纳入人参药物的分子鉴定中，测定了越南人参的18S核糖体RNA基因和matK基因序列，并将其与相关类群——大叶三七和喜马拉雅假人参——以及之前报道的人参、三七和西洋参的序列进行了比较。发现18S rRNA基因序列长度为1809个碱基对。越南人参的序列与西洋参的相同，与大叶三七和喜马拉雅假人参的序列均有一个碱基替换。发现6个类群的matK基因序列长度为1509个碱基对。越南人参的序列与大叶三七、喜马拉雅假人参、人参、三七和西洋参的序列分别在4、5、9、9和10个核苷酸位置存在差异。使用最大简约法通过18S rRNA - matK基因联合分析重建的系统发育树表明，越南人参与其他三七属物种同域分布，并且与大叶三七和喜马拉雅假人参关系密切。
