title: Identification of species adulteration in traded medicinal plant raw drugs using DNA barcoding.
abstract: Plants are the major source of therapeutic ingredients in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). However, species adulteration in traded medicinal plant raw drugs threatens the reliability and safety of CAM. Since morphological features of medicinal plants are often not intact in the raw drugs, DNA barcoding was employed for species identification. Adulteration in 112 traded raw drugs was tested after creating a reference DNA barcode library consisting of 1452 rbcL and matK barcodes from 521 medicinal plant species. Species resolution of this library was 74.4%, 90.2%, and 93.0% for rbcL, matK, and rbcL + matK, respectively. DNA barcoding revealed adulteration in about 20% of the raw drugs, and at least 6% of them were derived from plants with completely different medicinal or toxic properties. Raw drugs in the form of dried roots, powders, and whole plants were found to be more prone to adulteration than rhizomes, fruits, and seeds. Morphological resemblance, co-occurrence, mislabeling, confusing vernacular names, and unauthorized or fraudulent substitutions might have contributed to species adulteration in the raw drugs. Therefore, this library can be routinely used to authenticate traded raw drugs for the benefit of all stakeholders: traders, consumers, and regulatory agencies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetic Engineering, Center for DNA Barcoding, SRM University, Kattankulathur 603203, India.|Department of Genetic Engineering, Center for DNA Barcoding, SRM University, Kattankulathur 603203, India.
authors.forename: Stalin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nithaniyal
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetic Engineering, Center for DNA Barcoding, SRM University, Kattankulathur 603203, India.|Department of Genetic Engineering, Center for DNA Barcoding, SRM University, Kattankulathur 603203, India.
authors.forename: Sophie Lorraine
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Vassou
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetic Engineering, Center for DNA Barcoding, SRM University, Kattankulathur 603203, India.|Department of Genetic Engineering, Center for DNA Barcoding, SRM University, Kattankulathur 603203, India.
authors.forename: Sundar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Poovitha
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetic Engineering, Center for DNA Barcoding, SRM University, Kattankulathur 603203, India.|Department of Genetic Engineering, Center for DNA Barcoding, SRM University, Kattankulathur 603203, India.
authors.forename: Balaji
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Raju
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetic Engineering, Center for DNA Barcoding, SRM University, Kattankulathur 603203, India.|Department of Genetic Engineering, Center for DNA Barcoding, SRM University, Kattankulathur 603203, India.
authors.forename: Madasamy
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Parani
mesh_terms: D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods; D058893:DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic; D018744:DNA, Plant; D010946:Plants, Medicinal / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D018744:DNA, Plant
keywords: DNA barcoding; adultération des espèces; codage à barres de l’ADN; commerce d’ingrédients médicinaux bruts; complementary and alternative medicine; medicinal plants; médecine complémentaire ou alternative; plantes médicinales; raw drug trade; species adulteration