Radix Astragali is a popular herb used in traditional Chinese medicine for its proimmune and antidiabetic properties. However, methods are needed to help distinguish Radix Astragali from its varied adulterants. DNA barcoding is a widely applicable molecular method used to identify medicinal plants. Yet, its use has been hampered by genetic distance, base variation, and limitations of the bio-NJ...

DNA barcoding involves sequencing a standard region of DNA as a tool for species identification. However, there has been no agreement on which region(s) should be used for barcoding land plants. To provide a community recommendation on a standard plant barcode, we have compared the performance of 7 leading candidate plastid DNA regions (atpF-atpH spacer, matK gene, rbcL gene, rpoB gene, rpoC1 g...

Pogostemon cablin (Blanco) Benth. is an important medicinal plant in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Because of differences in the chemical composition, this species has been classified into two major chemotypes, i. e. the patchouliol-type and the pogostone-type; however, no quick and effective method is presently available for the precise identification of these two chemotypes. DNA barcodi...

Molecular markers, mainly DNA-based are potential tools for DNA barcoding and phylogenetic study. The plant species belonging to the Nepeta genus have important medicinal value because of the presence of nepetalactones, and they have been used to treat human diseases. We amplified nuclear and chloroplast gene loci to develop a DNA barcode and phylogenetic study of Nepeta deflersiana. Among the ...

DNA barcoding, as a tool for species discrimination, has been efficiently used in animals. However, there are still debates on which DNA region (s) can be adopted as the standard barcode (s) for land plants. In the present study, we evaluated the four proposed barcoding loci (matK, rbcL, trnH-psbA and ITS) on nine species of Nyssaceae. The results showed that ITS was the best performing single ...

A foundation for a DNA barcode reference library for the tropical plants of Australia is presented here. A total of 1572 DNA barcode sequences are compiled from 848 tropical Queensland species. The dataset represents 35% of the total flora of Queensland’s Wet Tropics Bioregion, 57% of its tree species and 28% of the shrub species. For approximately half of the sampled species, we investigated t...

Data is presented in support of a phylogenetic reconstruction of the species-rich early-divergent angiosperm genus Goniothalamus (Annonaceae) (Tang et al., Mol. Phylogenetic Evol., 2015) [1], inferred using chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) sequences. The data includes a list of primers for amplification and sequencing for nine cpDNA regions: atpB-rbcL, matK, ndhF, psbA-trnH, psbM-trnD, rbcL, trnL-F, trn...

Authenticating multi-species original raw materials in commercial formulations is difficult. Jin Yin Hua and Shan Yin Hua, both classified as raw honeysuckle materials in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, are used in various medicines. Differentiating one variety from another is difficult based on chemical analysis. We developed molecular authentication of multi-species original honeysuckle in 3 brand...

DNA barcoding in the land plants presents a number of challenges compared to DNA barcoding in many animal clades. The CO1 animal DNA barcode is not effective for plants. Plant species hybridize frequently, and there are many cases of recent speciation via mechanisms, such as polyploidy and breeding system transitions. Additionally, there are many life-history trait combinations, which combine t...