Review
DNA methods for identification of Chinese medicinal materials
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* Corresponding author: Hoi S Kwan hoishankwan@cuhk.edu.hk
1 Department of Biology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong
2 Department of Food Science and Biotechnology, National Chung Hsing University, 250 Kuokuang Road, Taichung 40227, Taiwan
Chinese Medicine 2007, 2:9 doi:10.1186/1749-8546-2-9
Published: 5 September 2007Abstract
As adulterated and substituted Chinese medicinal materials are common in the market, therapeutic effectiveness of such materials cannot be guaranteed. Identification at species-, strain- and locality-levels, therefore, is required for quality assurance/control of Chinese medicine. This review provides an informative introduction to DNA methods for authentication of Chinese medicinal materials. Technical features and examples of the methods based on sequencing, hybridization and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) are described and their suitability for different identification objectives is discussed.