Identifying the Species of Seeds in Traditional Chinese Medicine Using DNA Barcoding

Abstract

Seed is not only the main reproductive organ of most of herbal plants but also an important part of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Seed TCMs possess important medicinal properties and have been widely used as components of pharmaceutical products. In parallel with the increasing popularity and accessibility of seeds as medicinal products in recent years, numerous substitutes and adulterants have also appeared on the market. Due to the small volume and similar appearances of many seed TCMs, they are very difficult to accurately identify the constituent plant species through organoleptic methods. Usage of the wrong herb may be ineffective or may worsen the condition and even cause death. Correct identification of seed herbal medicines is therefore essential for their safe use. Here, we acquired 177 ITS2 sequences and 15 psbA-trnH sequences from 51 kinds of seed TCMs belonging to 64 species that have been described in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia. Tree-building analysis showed that the ITS2 sequences of 48 seed TCMs can be differentiated from each other, and they formed distinct, non-overlapping groups in the maximum-likelihood tree. Furthermore, all of the sequences acquired in this study have been submitted to the public DNA barcoding system for herbal medicine, and this integrated database was used to identify 400 seed TCM samples purchased from medicinal markets, drug stores, and the Internet, enabling the identification of 7.5% of the samples as containing non-declared species. This study provides a brief operating procedure for the identification of seed TCMs found in herbal medicine. In the future, researchers and traditional herbal medicine enterprises can use this system to test their herbal materials.

Comparison of the abilities of universal, super, and specific DNA barcodes to discriminate among the original species of Fritillariae cirrhosae bulbus and its adulterants

“…DNA barcoding has been demonstrated to be an efficient tool for identifying traditional medicines as well as their original species [23,[58][59][60]. In the present study, this tool was used to discriminate among the five original species of Fritillariae cirrhosae bulbus and three of its adulterants.…”

Detection of Adulteration and Pesticide Residues in Chinese Patent Medicine Qipi Pill Using KASP Technology and GC-MS/MS

“…DNA barcoding technology has been authorized as a standard method for the identification of traditional Chinese medicines in Chinese Pharmacopeia ( 29 ). It has been widely applied to the authentication of medicinal materials, decoction pieces, seeds and seedlings, and proprietary Chinese medicine ( 18 , 30 , 31 ). This method is basically not susceptible to external factors.…”

Biopiracy: Abolish Corporate Hijacking of Indigenous Medicinal Entities

“…Most of the natural product exporting nations are lacking with the technological advancement due their Gross domestic product (GDP). Developing standard operating procedures (SOP) with the low-cost certification for the local use and export of plant and natural products will be helpful in mitigating the adulteration [ 63 , 64 ].…”