Development and comparison of RAPD, SCAR and AFLP markers for distinguishing some medicinally important species of the genus Phyllanthus

Random amplified polymorphic deoxyribonucleic acid (RAPD), amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) and sequence characterized amplified region (SCAR) markers were employed for proper identification of five medicinally important species from the genus Phyllanthus, thus allowing these species to be used in herbal drug industry straight after bringing them from the field. RAPD data segregated the herb P. urinaria from the remaining species, whereas AFLP data successfully distinguished all the herbs, i.e., P. amarus Schum., P. fraternus Webster and P. urinaria L. A SCAR marker for one of the herbaceous species, P. urinaria, was also developed. In this study, AFLP came out as a better polymorphic marker than RAPD.