Conservation of endangered wild harvested medicinal plants : use of DNA barcoding

• The field of molecular biology has brought many innovations to biodiversity research, with the emerging field of DNA barcoding, which is having a growing impact on plant identification. In DNA barcoding, standard molecular markers are used for species identification of material that has hitherto been hard or impossible to identify, such as sterile plant vouchers, plant parts and even processed herbal products. Widespread use of DNA barcoding for plant identification faces challenges such as the selection of suitable markers that are both variable and easy to amplify, and the exhaustive presence of these markers for species in public nucleotide repositories. In recent years, researchers have successfully shown the power and accuracy of plant barcoding by creating molecular identification systems for various purposes, such as the identification of specific medicinal plant species susceptible to adulteration, overharvested and endangered taxa, and monitoring of cross-border trade in CITES-listed species. As markers, nucleotide repositories and sequencing technology improve, these methods will become ubiquitous and will facilitate the identification of products derived from wild-harvested medicinal plants and the enforcement of the Convention on Biological Diversity Nagoya protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Botanik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Botany (hsv//eng)

Keyword

conservation

wild harvesting

DNA barcoding

endangered medicinal plants

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kap (subject category)