On the Methods and Principles of MolecularIdentification of Chinese Herbs

Accurate identification of herbal medicinal materials is relevant to the safety of human life and economic interests. Traditional identification methods, including sensory evaluation, microscopic identification, physical and chemical identification, all have their limitations. Molecular identification brings a new opportunity for accurate identification of herbal medicinal materials. However, prior to its wide adoption, the methods and principles of molecular identification should be fully discussed. In this paper, we proposed a set of new methods for molecular authentication of herbal medicinal materials: 1) Identification between authenticity and adulteration by using specific polymerase chain reaction; 2) Identification between official herb and substitute by using the method of DNA barcoding; 3) Identification among multiple species of one official herbs by constructing genealogy among closely related species based on population genetics; 4) Identification among herbs of different geographical origins by phylogeography based analysis. For those that can not be identified by above four methods, more rapidly evolved markers such as microsatellite should be employed and individual based analysis could be adopted.