Peiris M A L M, Nanayakkara Dhanesha, Silva Cristian, Abeysundara Sachith P, Wijesinghe Priyanga
Postgraduate Institute of Science, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.
Department of Agricultural Biology, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.
PLoS One. 2025 Sep 2;20(9):e0328808. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0328808. eCollection 2025.
Sri Lankan cinnamon, widely known as true cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum), is a world-renowned commodity. With the high market demand, many incidents have reported adulteration of true cinnamon with other cinnamon species such as Cinnamomum aromaticum, Cinnamomum burmanni, and Cinnamomum loureiroi. Moreover, the contamination of cinnamon products with fungi (Aspergillus flavus) has also significantly negatively impacted the cinnamon export market. Morphological and chemical detection of adulterations has limitations, benchmarking the necessity for precise and effective new detection methods. The current study reports gene-specific novel molecular markers that can be used in Barcode High-Resolution Melting (Bar-HRM) analysis to distinguish C. verum from other substitutes. Six barcode regions (rbcL, trnH-psbA, matK, ITS2, trnL, trnL-trnF) were analyzed. The results demonstrate that trnH-psbA can effectively discriminate all selected cinnamon species from one another. Novel markers were designed to target the diagnostic nucleotide variations found within the designated barcode regions. Commercial cinnamon products and authentic samples of C. verum were used to validate the assay, and the DNA extraction protocol was optimized to ensure the acquisition of high-quality DNA. Bar-HRM was performed with the novel markers, and the four major cinnamon species in the international market were successfully distinguished. The spiked-in A. flavus DNA was also detected in a cinnamon admixture. Hence, these Bar-HRM conditions with the novel gene-specific markers can serve as an economical, efficient, and promising assay to detect the authenticity and purity of cinnamon samples.
斯里兰卡肉桂，广为人知的真正肉桂（锡兰肉桂），是一种世界闻名的商品。由于市场需求旺盛，许多事件报道了真正的肉桂被其他肉桂品种掺假，如中国肉桂、阴香和柳叶桂。此外，肉桂产品被真菌（黄曲霉）污染也对肉桂出口市场产生了重大负面影响。掺假的形态学和化学检测存在局限性，这突出了精确有效的新检测方法的必要性。本研究报告了可用于条形码高分辨率熔解（Bar-HRM）分析以区分锡兰肉桂与其他替代品的基因特异性新型分子标记。分析了六个条形码区域（rbcL、trnH-psbA、matK、ITS2、trnL、trnL-trnF）。结果表明，trnH-psbA可以有效地区分所有选定的肉桂品种。设计了新型标记以靶向指定条形码区域内发现的诊断性核苷酸变异。使用商业肉桂产品和锡兰肉桂的真实样品对该检测方法进行验证，并优化了DNA提取方案以确保获得高质量的DNA。使用新型标记进行了Bar-HRM分析，成功区分了国际市场上的四种主要肉桂品种。在肉桂混合物中也检测到了掺入的黄曲霉DNA。因此，这些具有新型基因特异性标记的Bar-HRM条件可作为一种经济、高效且有前景的检测方法，用于检测肉桂样品的真实性和纯度。
