Using SSR-HRM to Identify Closely Related Species in Herbal Medicine Products: A Case Study on Licorice.

ABSTRACT: Traditional herbal medicines have played important roles in the ways of life of people around the world since ancient times. Despite the advanced medical technology of the modern world, herbal medicines are still used as popular alternatives to synthetic drugs. Due to the increasing demand for herbal medicines, plant species identification has become an important tool to prevent substitution and adulteration. Here we propose a method for biological assessment of the quality of prescribed species in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia by use of high resolution melting (HRM) analysis of microsatellite loci. We tested this method on licorice, a traditional herbal medicine with a long history. Results showed that nine simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers produced distinct melting curve profiles for the

SUBMITTER: Li J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5928318 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature