Authentication of Garcinia fruits and food supplements using DNA barcoding and NMR spectroscopy.

Citation: 
Seethapathy G.S, Tadesse M, Santhosh Kumar J. U, Srikanth G, Vasudeva R, Malterud K. M , Uma Shaanker R, Boer H. J, Ravikanth G and Wangensteen H. 2018. Authentication of Garcinia fruits and food supplements using DNA barcoding and NMR spectroscopy. Scientific Reports 10
Authors: 
Seethapathy G.S, Tadesse M, Santhosh Kumar J. U, Srikanth G, Vasudeva R, Malterud K. M , Uma Shaanker R, Boer H. J, Ravikanth G and Wangensteen H.
Publication name: 
Scientific Reports

Garcinia L. (Clusiaceae) fruits are a rich source of (−)-hydroxycitric acid, and this has gained considerable attention as an anti-obesity agent and a popular weight loss food supplement. In this study, we assessed adulteration of morphologically similar samples of Garciniausing DNA barcoding, and used NMR to quantify the content of (−)-hydroxycitric acid and (−)-hydroxycitric acid lactone in raw herbal drugs and Garcinia food supplements. DNA barcoding revealed that mostly Ggummi-gutta (previously known as Gcambogia) and Gindicawere traded in Indian herbal markets, and there was no adulteration. The content of (−)-hydroxycitric acid and (−)-hydroxycitric acid lactone in the two species varied from 1.7% to 16.3%, and 3.5% to 20.7% respectively. Analysis of ten Garcinia food supplements revealed a large variation in the content of (−)-hydroxycitric acid, from 29 mg (4.6%) to 289 mg (50.6%) content per capsule or tablet. Only one product contained quantifiable amounts of (−)-hydroxycitric acid lactone. Furthermore the study demonstrates that DNA barcoding and NMR could be effectively used as a regulatory tool to authenticate Garciniafruit rinds and food supplements.

Full Text URL: 
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-28635-z
Year of publication: 
05.2018
People: 
Dr. G Ravikanth
Dr R Uma Shaanker
Projects: 
Research and Development of an herbal and fish product authentication service using DNA barcoding. Funded by Department of Biotechnology (DBT) New Delhi
Non-ATREE Publication(Y/N): 
No