Restriction fragment length polymorphisms of medicinal plants and crude drugs. II. Analysis of Glehnia littoralis of different geographical origin.

Total DNA was extracted from leaves of Glehnia littoralis belonging to various geographical strains with different furanocoumarin composition, and digested with restriction enzymes. Hybridization of digoxigenin-labeled probe containing rice ribosomal DNA to the digested DNA showed no difference in the restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) profiles among the plants of different geographical origin. It is concluded that genetic diversity among the geographical strains of G. littoralis is so narrow as to be incapable of detecting RFLPs using rDNA as a probe.