Kari Graham PhD, Cesar Cantu BS, Rachel Houston PhD
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Mitragyna speciosa, commonly known as kratom, is a narcotic plant that is used for its unique mood-enhancing and pain-relieving effects. It is marketed throughout the United States as a ‘legal high’ and has gained popularity as an alternative to opioids. However, kratom's increasing involvement in accidental overdoses, especially among polydrug users, has prompted warnings from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Despite these warnings, kratom remains legal federally, although it is banned in six states. This legal disparity complicates monitoring and enforcement efforts in states where kratom is illegal. Common forensic techniques using morphology or chemical analysis are beneficial in some instances but are not useful in source attribution because most seized kratom is powdered and the alkaloid content of samples can vary within products, making sourcing unreliable. This study focused on developing a DNA barcoding method to access sequence variation in commercial kratom products. It evaluated the utility of one nuclear barcode region (ITS) and three chloroplast barcode regions (matK, rbcL, and trnH-psbA) in assessing sequence variation across commercially available kratom products. Novel polymorphisms were discovered, and the ITS region showed the greatest variation between samples. Among the 15 kratom products tested, only two haplotypes were identified across the four barcoding regions. The findings highlight the potential of DNA barcoding as a forensic tool in the traceability and enforcement against illegal kratom distribution. Nonetheless, the limited haplotypic diversity points to a need for further development and expansion of the M. speciosa DNA sequence database.
桔梗(Mitragyna speciosa)俗称桔梗,是一种麻醉植物,因其独特的增强情绪和镇痛效果而被使用。它在美国各地被作为 "合法兴奋剂 "销售,并作为阿片类药物的替代品广受欢迎。然而,越来越多的人,尤其是吸食多种毒品的人意外服用过量克拉托姆,这引起了美国缉毒署(DEA)和食品药品管理局(FDA)的警告。尽管有这些警告,但克瑞托姆在联邦仍然是合法的,尽管它在六个州是被禁止的。这种法律上的差异使得在 kratom 非法的各州的监控和执法工作变得更加复杂。使用形态学或化学分析的普通法医技术在某些情况下是有益的,但在确定来源方面并不实用,因为大多数查获的 kratom 都是粉末状的,而且不同产品的样本生物碱含量可能不同,因此来源并不可靠。本研究的重点是开发一种 DNA 条形码方法,以获取商品化 kratom 产品中的序列变异。它评估了一个核条形码区(ITS)和三个叶绿体条形码区(matK、rbcL 和 trnH-psbA)在评估市售桔梗产品序列变异方面的效用。结果发现了新的多态性,而 ITS 区域在不同样品之间的差异最大。在检测的 15 种桔梗产品中,四个条形码区域只发现了两种单倍型。这些发现凸显了 DNA 条形码作为法医工具在追踪和打击非法桔梗销售方面的潜力。然而,有限的单倍型多样性表明有必要进一步开发和扩展 M. speciosa DNA 序列数据库。
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Forensic Sciences (JFS) is the official publication of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS). It is devoted to the publication of original investigations, observations, scholarly inquiries and reviews in various branches of the forensic sciences. These include anthropology, criminalistics, digital and multimedia sciences, engineering and applied sciences, pathology/biology, psychiatry and behavioral science, jurisprudence, odontology, questioned documents, and toxicology. Similar submissions dealing with forensic aspects of other sciences and the social sciences are also accepted, as are submissions dealing with scientifically sound emerging science disciplines. The content and/or views expressed in the JFS are not necessarily those of the AAFS, the JFS Editorial Board, the organizations with which authors are affiliated, or the publisher of JFS. All manuscript submissions are double-blind peer-reviewed.