title: What is in a name? The need for accurate scientific nomenclature for plants.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To avoid ambiguities and error, ethnopharmacological and any other research on plants requires precise and appropriate use of botanical scientific nomenclature.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This paper explores problems and impacts of ambiguous or erroneous use of botanical scientific nomenclature in ethnopharmacological studies. It suggests how the frequency and impact of such errors can be reduced.
  
  
  METHODS
  We assessed 214 articles published in the three first volumes of the Journal of Ethnopharmacology in 2012: 140(1) to 141 (3) and 214 articles in Phytomedicine (2012-2013): 19 (5) to 20 (7).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Amongst the articles reviewed 308 articles cited plant names incorrectly. Among the articles studied 9178 Latin scientific names were cited and 3445 were incorrect in some respect. Simple principles applied in a systematic way and used together with open-access reference resources could help authors, referees and editors of ethnopharmacological, phytochemical, toxicological and clinical studies to reduce ambiguity about the identity and name of the species involved and thus significantly improve the quality of the final publication.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We have identified a series of key steps needed to solve the taxonomic ambiguities and errors. Aside from reinforcing existing policies, journals will have to implement better tools to ensure the proper authentication of materials. The new electronic publishing environments offer novel ways to develop such botanical-taxonomic tools.
authors.affiliation: Dpto Biología Vegetal, Campus de Espinardo, Universidad de Murcia, Murcia 30100, Spain. Electronic address: drivera@um.es.
authors.forename: Diego
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rivera
authors.affiliation: Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, London, United Kingdom. Electronic address: b.allkin@kew.org.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Allkin
authors.affiliation: Dpto. Biología Aplicada, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Universidad Miguel Hernández, Ctra. Beniel Km 3.2, 03312 Orihuela, Alicante, Spain. Electronic address: cobon@umh.es.
authors.forename: Concepción
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Obón
authors.affiliation: Dpto Biología Vegetal, Campus de Espinardo, Universidad de Murcia, Murcia 30100, Spain.
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Alcaraz
authors.affiliation: Division of Pharmacognosy, Section Metabolomics, Institute Biology Leiden, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands. Electronic address: verpoorte@chem.leidenuniv.nl.
authors.forename: Rob
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Verpoorte
authors.affiliation: Research Cluster Biodiversity and Medicines/ Centre for Pharmacognosy and Phytotherapy, UCL School of Pharmacy, University of London, London, United Kingdom; Department of Pharmaceutics and Industrial Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: m.heinrich@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Heinrich
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000379:methods; D002965:Classification / Q000379:methods; D020834:Ethnopharmacology; D006801:Humans; D010946:Plants, Medicinal / Q000145:classification*; D009626:Terminology as Topic
keywords: Botanical nomenclature; Nomenclature; Plant authentication; Taxonomy Latin binomials; Traditional medicine