Chapter 6 - Taxonomy—An irreplaceable tool for validation of herbal medicine revisited

Abstract

Over the last decades there has been an increasing recognition of the importance of herbal medicine around the globe. Apart from the obvious use of crude plant preparations or plant extracts, plant-based natural product research has become a common tool in drug development. Plant material for research is often sourced either directly from the wild, or form a wide variety of venders and providers, most commonly over the Internet. The quality of the source material is often highly variable, and it has been our experience that much of the available material lacks all, or at least careful, documentation, identification and vouchering. Many well-respected researchers in phytomedicine are deficient in plant taxonomy and might be convinced that the correct scientific name and vouchering of plant material sourced does not really matter, if only a consistent vernacular name is provided. In this chapter we explore the necessity of correct scientific identification of material in herbal medicine, point to common errors in the process, and suggest ways to avoid potentially disastrous mistakes.