To choose a suitable DNA marker to authenticate the botanical origins of Flos Lonicerae Japonicae and Flos Lonicerae, seven candidate DNA bar codes (i.e., RBCL, MATK, PSBA-TRNH, ITS2, ITS, TRNL intron, and TRNL-F intergenic spacer) were tested on forty-four samples of LONICERA JAPONICA and its closely related species using the DNA barcoding method. We found that all seven candidate bar codes yi...

Piper kadsura is a vine-like medicinal plant which is widely used in clinical treatment. However, P. kadsura is often substituted by other materials in the markets, thereby causing health risks. In this study, 38 P. kadsura samples and eight sequences from GenBank, including a closely-related species and common adulterants were collected. This study aimed to identify an effective DNA barcode fr...

Acacia species are quite difficult to differentiate using morphological characters. Routine identification of Acacia samples is important in order to distinguish invasive species from rare species or those of economic importance, particularly in the forest industry. The genus Acacia is quite abundant and diverse comprising approximately 1355 species, which is currently divided into three subgen...

Since the pre-historic era, humans have been using forests as a food, drugs and handcraft reservoir. Today, the use of botanical raw material to produce pharmaceuticals, herbal remedies, teas, spirits, cosmetics, sweets, dietary supplements, special industrial compounds and crude materials constitute an important global resource in terms of healthcare and economy. In recent years, DNA barcoding...

BACKGROUND Species identification of living organisms by standard DNA sequences has been well-accepted. Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) recommends chloroplast regions rbcL and matK as the DNA barcodes for the land plants. This study aims to evaluate the feasibility and limitations of rbcL, matK, and 5 other commonly used regions as the DNA barcodes for the medicinal Gentiana and their...

DNA barcoding of plants poses particular challenges, especially in differentiating, recently diverged taxa. The genus Gentiana (Gentianaceae) is a species-rich plant group which rapidly radiated in the Himalaya-Hengduan Mountains in China. In this study, we tested the core plant barcode (rbcL + matK) and three promising complementary barcodes (trnH-psbA, ITS and ITS2) in 30 Gentiana species acr...

BACKGROUND While DNA barcoding is an important technology for the authentication of the botanical origins of Chinese medicines, the suitable markers for DNA barcoding of the genus Uncaria have not been reported yet. This study aims to determine suitable markers for DNA barcoding of the genus Uncaria (Gouteng). METHODS Genomic DNA was extracted from the freshly dried leaves of Uncaria plants b...

In the present study, we investigated DNA barcoding effectiveness to characterize honeybee pollen pellets, a food supplement largely used for human nutrition due to its therapeutic properties. We collected pollen pellets using modified beehives placed in three zones within an alpine protected area (Grigna Settentrionale Regional Park, Italy). A DNA barcoding reference database, including rbcL a...

BACKGROUND Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) is a common but very expensive herbal medicine. As an important traditional medicine, it has an outstanding effect in treating irregular and painful menstruation. Recently, the over-demand tendency of saffron results in an unusual phenomenon in the medicinal markets. Adulterants and saffron-like substitutes are intentionally mixed into medicinal markets an...

We investigate the species discriminatory power of a subset of the proposed plant barcoding loci (matK, rbcL, rpoC1, rpoB, trnH-psbA) in Carex, a cosmopolitan genus that represents one of the three largest plant genera on earth (c. 2000 species). To assess the ability of barcoding loci to resolve Carex species, we focused our sampling on three of the taxonomically best-known groups in the genus...