title: Authentication of medicinal Dendrobium species by the internal transcribed spacer of ribosomal DNA.
abstract: Herba Dendrobii (Shihu) is a commonly used Chinese medicine derived from the stem of several orchid species belonging to the genus Dendrobium. It is rather expensive and adulteration is frequent. Proper authentication of the medicinal species is necessary to protect consumers and support conservation measures. DNA sequences of the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS 2) of 16 Dendrobium species were shown to be significantly different from one another by an average of 12.4% and from non-orchids and Pholidota (an adulterant of Shihu) by 29.8% and 18.8%, respectively. The intra-specific variation among the Dendrobium species studied was only about 1%. Therefore, ITS 2 regions could be adopted as a molecular marker for differentiating medicinal Dendrobium species from one another and also from non-orchids and adulterants.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin.
authors.forename: D T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.forename: P C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Shaw
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: P P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: But
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D004340:Drug Contamination / Q000517:prevention & control; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D019684:Magnoliopsida / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D008517:Phytotherapy; D010946:Plants, Medicinal; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D018744:DNA, Plant; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal