Journal Article

DNA barcoding: an efficient tool to overcome authentication challenges in the herbal market

Shukla, Ashutosh K, Nagireddy, Akshitha, Mishra, Priyanka, Kumar, Amit, Mani, Daya N, Sundaresan, Velusamy, Tiwari, Rakesh

2016

Overview

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.

• Publisher: Blackwell Pub,John Wiley & Sons, Inc,John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subject: Acceptability / Authentication / Bar codes / barcoding / Biological effects / biological reference material herbal barcode library / Biology / Commerce / Cryptic species / Deoxyribonucleic acid / DNA / DNA barcoding / DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic - methods / DNA sequencing / Drugs / Economic conditions / Feasibility / Gene sequencing / Genomics / Health care / health services / herbal market / Herbal medicine / herbal medicines / High resolution / high-throughput nucleotide sequencing / Identification / Industry / Ingredients / internal transcribed spacers / Internationality / Joining / Loci / Markets / Melting / Melting curve / Metabolomics / molecular techniques / plant identification / Plant species / Plant species introduction / Plants (organisms) / Plants, Medicinal - genetics / Proteomics / Quality control / Review / Robustness / rRNA 18S / rRNA 5S / species identification / System effectiveness / trade / traditional tools / transcriptomics