Advances in identification of traditional Chinese medicinal materials seeds using DNA barcoding technology / 中草药

ABSTRACT

Seeds are the source of the Chinese medicine industry. The accurate identification of seeds is not only related to the genuineness of Chinese medicinal materials, but also related to the safety and effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine. Since a large proportion of Chinese medicinal material seeds are small in size, rich in inclusions, and their morphological characters are easy to be changed by the grade of maturity and environmental conditions, it is difficult to identify seeds through traditional methods. DNA barcoding is a novel genetic method designed for accurate species identification using a standard DNA locus, and it has gradually become a research hotspot for the seed authentication of Chinese medicinal materials. In this paper, we briefly summarized the recent research developments of the DNA barcoding identification for Chinese medicinal material seeds, demonstrate the technical characteristics of using DNA barcoding to authenticate the seeds of Chinese medicinal materials, and pointed out that different protocols should be employed according to the types of seeds. We further proposed a research method for the identification of commercially available Chinese medicinal materials seed mixtures using the DNA metabarcoding, which provides new ideas for the identification of Chinese medicinal material seeds.