Assessment of intra-specific variability at morphological, molecular and biochemical level of Andrographis paniculata (Kalmegh)

In the present investigation, 15 Andrographis paniculata genotypes collected from Chhattisgarh and adjoining states were grown in the field for the variability studies. Three different variability parameters namely morphological, molecular and chemotyping of active ingredient content were employed. Wide variations were recorded with regard to quantitative characters and RAPD profile. Ten polymorphic RAPD primers produced a total of 37 amplicons, which generated 70.27% polymorphism. The number of amplified products ranged from 2 to 7 for different primers, whereas the percentage of genetic similarity for the studied primers ranged from 51.4 to 97.0. There were two major clusters formed in the genotypes studied. The andrographolide content ranged from 0.69 to 1.85% and the genotype KI-2 had the highest estimated content. The study demonstrated that simultaneously morphological, molecular and biochemical analysis are useful for characterizing genetic diversity and defining relationships between kalmegh germplasm. It also gave possible indications to the phytochemical variation of different genotypes which were due to the genetic differences.