title: DNA barcoding: an efficient tool to overcome authentication challenges in the herbal market.
abstract: The past couple of decades have witnessed global resurgence of herbal-based health care. As a result, the trade of raw drugs has surged globally. Accurate and fast scientific identification of the plant(s) is the key to success for the herbal drug industry. The conventional approach is to engage an expert taxonomist, who uses a mix of traditional and modern techniques for precise plant identification. However, for bulk identification at industrial scale, the process is protracted and time-consuming. DNA barcoding, on the other hand, offers an alternative and feasible taxonomic tool box for rapid and robust species identification. For the success of DNA barcode, the barcode loci must have sufficient information to differentiate unambiguously between closely related plant species and discover new cryptic species. For herbal plant identification, matK, rbcL, trnH-psbA, ITS, trnL-F, 5S-rRNA and 18S-rRNA have been used as successful DNA barcodes. Emerging advances in DNA barcoding coupled with next-generation sequencing and high-resolution melting curve analysis have paved the way for successful species-level resolution recovered from finished herbal products. Further, development of multilocus strategy and its application has provided new vistas to the DNA barcode-based plant identification for herbal drug industry. For successful and acceptable identification of herbal ingredients and a holistic quality control of the drug, DNA barcoding needs to work harmoniously with other components of the systems biology approach. We suggest that for effectively resolving authentication challenges associated with the herbal market, DNA barcoding must be used in conjunction with metabolomics along with need-based transcriptomics and proteomics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology & Systematics, CSIR - Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Research Centre, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Priyanka
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mishra
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology & Systematics, CSIR - Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Research Centre, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Amit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology & Systematics, CSIR - Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Research Centre, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Akshitha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nagireddy
authors.affiliation: Herbal Medicinal Products Department, CSIR - Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Daya N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Mani
authors.affiliation: Biotechnology Division, CSIR - Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Ashutosh K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Shukla
authors.affiliation: Publication Division, CSIR - Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Rakesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tiwari
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology & Systematics, CSIR - Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Research Centre, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Velusamy
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sundaresan
mesh_terms: D003132:Commerce; D058893:DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic / Q000379:methods*; D023281:Genomics; D007221:Industry; D038622:Internationality; D010946:Plants, Medicinal / Q000235:genetics*
keywords: DNA barcoding; authentication; biological reference material herbal barcode library; herbal market; molecular techniques; traditional tools