Rapd based genetic variability assessment in Andrographis paniculata (burm. f.) wall. ex nees (kalmegh): An important hepatoprotective herb

Andrographis paniculata, a popular hepatoprotective plant used in traditional medicine in India and has an immense therapeutic value. In this study, genetic diversity of 31 accessions was evaluated using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). Sixteen primers generated 156 (92.3%) polymorphic bands with an average of 9.75 polymorphic bands per primer. Polymorphic information content (PIC) ranged from 0.83 to 0.91 with an average of 0.880. Jaccard's similarity coefficients for RAPD primers ranged from 0.23 (AS-19/IC 260035) to 0.89 (AL-1/AS-36) with a mean genetic similarity of 0.59. The UPGMA based dendrogram grouped the genotypes in 11 different clusters at a cut off value of 0.60. The results indicated that RAPD could be effectively used for genetic diversity analysis in A. paniculata as it is reliable, rapid and superior to those based on pedigree information.