A Simple, Quick, Efficient and Cost-effective Method for Isolating Genomic DNA from Medicinal Plant Lemon Balm

Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis L.) is popular as an alternative to standard medicine for a variety of problems and its essential oil is widely used in pharmacology. The isolation of good quality DNA is the pre-requisite for molecular research. Due to high amounts of polysaccharides, polyphenols and various secondary metabolites, DNA extraction from lemon balm is problematic. In this study, three different CTAB based methods by some modification were compared for the isolation of high-quality genomic DNA from lemon balm. The DNA from the leaves of five lemon balm ecotypes was extracted using CTAB methods A (with PVP and phenol), B (PVP, Proteinase K and Na acetate) and C (PVP, Tri sodium citrate and NaCl). The quality of DNA samples was determined by physical appearance, agarose gel electrophoresis, spectrophometer, PCR amplification and restriction. Based on the results of various DNA quality analysis, the CTAB method C was found to be the most efficient one. Method C was found to be the most efficient DNA extraction method for lemon balm providing high DNA yields with better quality, in short time with less cost. It could affordable for DNA extraction from medicinal plants with similar secondary metabolites content.