Authentication of Garcinia fruits and food supplements using DNA barcoding and NMR spectroscopy

Abstract

Garcinia L. (Clusiaceae) fruits are a rich source of (−)-hydroxycitric acid, and this has gained considerable attention as an anti-obesity agent and a popular weight loss food supplement. In this study, we assessed adulteration of morphologically similar samples of Garcinia using DNA barcoding, and used NMR to quantify the content of (−)-hydroxycitric acid and (−)-hydroxycitric acid lactone in raw herbal drugs and Garcinia food supplements. DNA barcoding revealed that mostly G. gummi-gutta (previously known as G. cambogia) and G. indica were traded in Indian herbal markets, and there was no adulteration. The content of (−)-hydroxycitric acid and (−)-hydroxycitric acid lactone in the two species varied from 1.7% to 16.3%, and 3.5% to 20.7% respectively. Analysis of ten Garcinia food supplements revealed a large variation in the content of (−)-hydroxycitric acid, from 29 mg (4.6%) to 289 mg (50.6%) content per capsule or tablet. Only one product contained quantifiable amounts of (−)-hydroxycitric acid lactone. Furthermore the study demonstrates that DNA barcoding and NMR could be effectively used as a regulatory tool to authenticate Garcinia fruit rinds and food supplements.

Mitigating the Impact of Admixtures in Thai Herbal Products

“…A previous report has shown that 15.5% of the total number of plant species in Thailand is used as medicinal plants (Wakdikar, 2004). Recently, a number of studies have also shown that natural health product (NHP) market samples of raw herbal trade materials are often adulterated with other species (Kool et al, 2012; Newmaster et al, 2013; de Boer et al, 2015; Kumar et al, 2015; Urumarudappa et al, 2016; Mezzasalma et al, 2017; Pawar et al, 2017; Dechbumroong et al, 2018; Raclariu et al, 2018; Liu et al, 2018; Seethapathy et al, 2018; Speranskaya et al, 2018; Tungphatthong et al, 2018; Kreuzer et al, 2019).…”

“…Pawar et al (2017) used traditional DNA barcoding techniques and chemical markers to identify frequently consumed botanical dietary supplements of ginkgo, soy, valerian, yohimbe, etc. The combination of DNA barcoding and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) was used for the identification of admixture in Garciania species (Seethapathy et al, 2018) and Saraca acosa (Urumarudappa et al, 2016). Wang et al (2016) used DNA barcoding for the identification of processed Angelicae sinensis radix (Danggui) used in Chinese patent medicines (CPMs).…”

“…Since adulteration is very difficult to trace in situ and requires expertise, scientific methods have been developed to address medicinal plant adulteration in herbal trade, such as microscopic, macroscopic, organoleptic, and chemical analyses (Techen et al, 2014; Moraes et al, 2015; Mishra et al, 2016; Pawar et al, 2017; Raclariu et al, 2018). DNA technology has been heavily used to investigate the adulteration of species (Newmaster et al, 2013; Phoolcharoen and Sukrong, 2013; Kumar et al, 2015; Urumarudappa et al, 2016; Pawar et al, 2017; Dechbumroong et al, 2018; Liu et al, 2018; Raclariu et al, 2018; Seethapathy et al, 2018; Speranskaya et al, 2018; Kreuzer et al, 2019). Among the available tools for species identification and traceability, DNA barcoding is a low-cost and highly efficient approach that has the potential for automatization and rapid application (Galimberti et al, 2013; Mishra et al, 2016; Dechbumroong et al, 2018).…”

Opportunities and Challenges in Development of Phytopharmaceutical Drug in India- A SWOT Analysis

“…Increase in demand for phytopharmaceutical drugs in global market may lead to compromise in quality due to adulteration and substitution, which will become the greatest threat for health of consumers. [44][45][46] Availability and identification of quality phytopharmaceuticals is the major challenge for the regulatory authorities, as adulteration and mis-identification of raw material for phytopharmaceutical drug may occur due to confusion from vernacular names and inter-species variation in various geographical conditions. [46][47][48][49] Need for robust method for identification of raw material at field during collection.…”

“…50 Moreover, herbal business generates employment opportunities to many people including farmers, local people, industry people, researchers and many more. The projected market for herbal medicines by 2023 is $ 111 billion, 51 which may became an impressive market for phytopharmaceuticals due to availability/confidence of scientific data, it can outclass the herbal and allopathic industry market. In India 90% of the herbal drug raw material are harvested from wild source and from varying geographical distribution.…”