Abstract
Growing popularity of herbal medicine has increased the demand of medicinal orchids in the global markets leading to their overharvesting from natural habitats for illegal trade. To stop such illegal trade, the correct identification of orchid species from their traded products is a foremost requirement. Different species of medicinal orchids are traded as their dried or fresh parts (tubers, pseudobulbs, stems), which look similar to each other making it almost impossible to identify them merely based on morphological observation. To overcome this problem, DNA barcoding could be an important method for accurate identification of medicinal orchids. Therefore, this research evaluated DNA barcoding of medicinal orchids in Asia where illegal trade of medicinal orchids has long existed. Based on genetic distance, similarity-based and tree-based methods with sampling nearly 7,000 sequences from five single barcodes (ITS, ITS2, matK, rbcL, trnH-psbA and their seven combinations), this study revealed that DNA barcoding is effective for identifying medicinal orchids. Among single locus, ITS performed the best barcode, whereas ITS + matK exhibited the most efficient barcode among multi-loci. A barcode library as a resource for identifying medicinal orchids has been established which contains about 7,000 sequences of 380 species (i.e. 90%) of medicinal orchids in Asia.
Highlights
Growing popularity of herbal medicine has increased the demand of medicinal orchids in the global markets leading to their overharvesting from natural habitats for illegal trade
Sequence in the data matrix comprised 1823 (ITS), 1833 (ITS2 mainly excised from the aforementioned ITS sequences), 1414, 1109 and 807 (Table 2)
In the vast majority of the prior studies of DNA barcoding of Orchidaceae, genomic DNA was extracted from leaves (e.g.28–31) but illegal trade of medicinal orchids usually occurs by exporting their different parts such as tuber, stem, pseudobulb etc
Summary
Growing popularity of herbal medicine has increased the demand of medicinal orchids in the global markets leading to their overharvesting from natural habitats for illegal trade. Different species of medicinal orchids are traded as their dried or fresh parts (tubers, pseudobulbs, stems), which look similar to each other making it almost impossible to identify them merely based on morphological observation. To overcome this problem, DNA barcoding could be an important method for accurate identification of medicinal orchids. To understand their original locality (natural habitats) and to monitor that specific area for conservation and sustainable management
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
