title: From classical taxonomy to genome and metabolome: towards comprehensive quality standards for medicinal herb raw materials and extracts.
abstract: Fundamental to herbal medicine quality is the use of 'authentic' medicinal herb species. Species, however, 'represent more or less arbitrary and subjective man-made units'. Against this background, we discuss, with illustrative examples, the importance of defining species boundaries by accommodating both the fixed (shared) diagnostic and varying (within-species) traits in medicinal herb populations. We emphasize the role of taxonomy, floristic information and genomic profiling in authenticating medicinal herb species, in addition to the need to include within species phytochemical profile variations while developing herbal extract identification protocols. We outline the application of species-specific genomic and phytochemical markers, chemoprofiling and chemometrics as additional tools to develop qualifying herbal extract references. We list the diagnostic traits available subsequent to each step during the medicinal herb extract manufacturing process and delineate limits to qualification of extract references.
authors.affiliation: Network Nutrition Pty Limited, Level 1, 1 Richardson Place, North Ryde NSW 2113, Australia.
authors.forename: Suresh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Govindaraghavan
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Hennell
authors.forename: Nikolaus J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Sucher
mesh_terms: D002965:Classification; D004339:Drug Compounding / Q000379:methods; D035264:Flowers; D018745:Genome, Plant; D023281:Genomics; D029001:Herbal Medicine / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D055442:Metabolome; D055432:Metabolomics; D008517:Phytotherapy / Q000592:standards*; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000592:standards*; D010946:Plants, Medicinal / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D010936:Plant Extracts