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Session 1: Traditional medicine knowledge: protection and knowledge management
KEYNOTE LECTURE
DNA Barcoding of Medicinal Plant Materials in Traditional Medicines
Suchada Sukrong*
*Chulalongkorn University Drug and Health Products Innovation Promotion Center (CU.D.HIP.),
Department of Pharmacognosy and Pharmaceutical Botany, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand 10330
Medicinal plants have played key role in world health. Herbal formulations have reached
extensive acceptability as therapeutic agents for treatment of several diseases. Herbal drug
technology is used for converting botanicals materials into medicines, where standardization
and quality control with proper integration of modern scientific techniques and traditional
techniques is important to produce and distribute healthy and nutritious fresh products in an
efficient and safe manner. Quality control of crude drugs can be done by means of various
methods, for instance, morphological, microscopical, physical, chemical, biological, including
DNA testing. Since DNA of herbs in the herbal medicine products do not diverse due to
various harvest seasons, plant origins, processing and other factors, DNA method such as
DNA barcoding become popular among various tests.
DNA barcode consists of a standardized short sequence of DNA between 400 and 800
base pairs long that in theory can be easily isolated and characterized for all species on the
earth. It has been found that three plastid (rbcL, matK, and trnH-psbA) gene regions and one
nuclear (ITS) gene regions in the plant genome have become the standard barcode of choice
in most investigations for plants. DNA barcoding can be used to confirm the authenticity of
herbal or botanical ingredients prior to extraction in herbal supplements. There was a report
that DNA barcoding showed approximately 20 percent of the store-brand supplements contain
the plants listed on the labels and that many products (80 percent) do not contain any DNA
from a botanical source. This finding is a matter of public health for regulation of herbal
industries to prove whatûs in its products. Database of DNA barcode of medicinal plants for all
of the active herbal or botanical ingredients used in its supplements should be generated.
However, traditional techniques, microscopy and validated chemical test methods, like those
found in official pharmacopeias, should be conducted to confirm the DNA findings.
Key words: DNA barcode, gene regions, medicinal plant, traditional medicine