Molecular identification of commercialized medicinal plants in southern Morocco.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Medicinal plant trade is important for local livelihoods. However, many medicinal plants are difficult to identify when they are sold as roots, powders or bark. DNA barcoding involves using a short, agreed-upon region of a genome as a unique identifier for species- ideally, as a global standard.

Research question

What is the functionality, efficacy and accuracy of the use of barcoding for identifying root material, using medicinal plant roots sold by herbalists in Marrakech, Morocco, as a test dataset.

Methodology

In total, 111 root samples were sequenced for four proposed barcode regions rpoC1, psbA-trnH, matK and ITS. Sequences were searched against a tailored reference database of Moroccan medicinal plants and their closest relatives using BLAST and Blas

SUBMITTER: Kool A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3384669 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature