Identification of Medicinal Plants Using DNA Barcoding Technique

The accurate identification of medicinal plants in relation to their purity and quality as well as safe application has become increasingly important. DNA barcoding is an established technique that uses the sequence diversity in short, standard DNA regions for species-level identification. It is primarily used to identify known species by comparing their unique barcode sequences to reference sequences in public databases, as well as to facilitate species discovery. DNA barcoding provides a more rapid, subjective, and accurate identification compared with traditional methods. Thus, it has rapidly become a widely recognized tool for species identification. Chen et al. provided a comprehensive evaluation of different DNA regions for the authentication of medicinal plants. They found that the second internal transcriber spacer (ITS2) region could be used as a universal barcode for plant authentication. The ITS2 barcode has been tested recently in a wide range of taxa. It has been proven to be effective for identifying medicinal plants. In this study, we introduce the DNA barcoding technique and determine its usage in discriminating medicinal plants, as well as its advantages and limitations. Keywords: DNA barcoding; medicinal plants; identification; ITS2; PCR condition