Authentication Of Several Traditional Bulk Chinese Herbal Seeds By Analysis Of DNA Barcoding

Objective: Chinese herbal medicines seed is the starting point of the industrial chain.The authenticity and quality of traditional Chinese medicine seed directly affect its cultivation, processing, distribution, clinical application, and other follow-up aspects. It is extremely important for each link of Chinese herbal medicine chain on accurate identification of medicinal herbs seeds to ensure the genuineness and authenticity in medicinal germplasm. This paper has tried to establish an identification method for several traditional bulk Chinese herbal seeds based on DNA Barcoding to ensure genuineness of Chinese herbal seeds and provid a new method to identify germplasm for the country.Methods: This paper has set altogether several traditional bulk Chinese herbal seeds,which are collected from many provinces of our country, including Salviae miltiorrhizae radix et rhizoma, Lonicerae flos, Glehniae radix, Scutellariae radix, Astragali radix,Moutan cortex. Primary identify of the collected seeds using morphological identification method, then molecular identification was followed using the Chinese herbal medicine seeds molecular identification system based on ITS2 sequences. The morphological characteristics of the seeds has been first surveyed. Then the DNA extraction, PCR amplification, DNA sequencing and DNA assembly were carried out. The species identification for the seed was implemented through distance method, NJ-tree method and the DNA barcoding system for traditional Chinese medicine(www.tcmbarcode.cn).Results: The results showed that DNA was extracted successfully from all seedsamples, and got ITS2 sequence, and also can identify the corresponding original species.Conclusion: In summary, the DNA barcode technology was the new method applied to the identification of Chinese herbal seeds, which can solve the identification of Chinese herbal medicines seeds on the genetic level. As a strong technical support for the standard identification system of Chinese herbal medicine, DNA barcode technology can provide strong protection for the good operation of Chinese herbal medicine industry chain.