Authentication Of Chinese Medicinal Materials Research Articles

Authentication of Chinese medicinal materials by DNA technology

Authentication of Chinese medicinal materials by DNA technology

Structural characterization and discrimination of Chinese medicinal materials with multiple botanical origins based on metabolite profiling and chemometrics analysis: Clematidis Radix et Rhizoma as a case study

Traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs)-based products are becoming more and more popular over the world. To ensure the safety and efficacy, authentication of Chinese medicinal materials has been an important issue, especially for that with multiple botanical origins (one-to-multiple). Taking Clematidis Radix et Rhizoma (CRR) as a case study, we herein developed an integrated platform based on metabolite profiling and chemometrics analysis to characterize, classify, and predict the “one-to-multiple” herbs. Firstly, the predominant constituents, triterpenoid saponins, in three Clematis CRR were rapid characterized by a novel UPLC-QTOF/MS-based strategy, and a total of 49 triterpenoid saponins were identified. Secondly, metabolite profiling was performed by UPLC-QTOF/MS, and 4623 variables were extracted and aligned as dataset. Thirdly, by using pattern recognition analysis, a clear separation of the three Clematis CRR was achieved as well as a total number of 28 variables were screened as the valuable variables for discrimination. By matching with identified saponins, these 28 variables were corresponding to 10 saponins which were identified as marker compounds. Fourthly, based on the relative intensity of the marker compounds-related variables, genetic algorithm optimized support vector machines (GA-SVM) was employed to predict the species of CRR samples. The obtained model showed excellent prediction performance with a prediction accuracy of 100%. Finally, a heatmap visualization was employed for clarifying the distribution of identified saponins, which could be useful for phytochemotaxonomy study of Clematis herbs. These results indicated that our proposed platform was a powerful tool for chemical profiling and discrimination of herbs with multiple botanical origins, providing promising perspectives in tracking the formulation processes of TCMs products.

English

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), with its multi-target effects, is gaining more and more attention all over the world due to its specific theory and long historical clinical practice. But the absence of an objective and accurate inspection system is frequently cited as one of the major hurdles for its modernization and globalization. Benefiting from modern molecular biology and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques, DNA markers have become one of the most reliable methods for identification and authentication of Chinese medicinal materials. This paper reviewed the recent progress of DNA markers, including PCR-based markers, hybridization-based markers, sequenced-based markers, and DNA microarray in the authentication of TCM. Key words: DNA marker, Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), polymerase chain peaction (PCR).

Application of bioinformatics in molecular authentication of traditional Chinese medicinal materials

Benefiting from various DNA technologies, DNA markers have now become a popular means for the identification of Chinese medicinal materials. Facing the huge amount of valuable data that has been produced, researchers need to understand the bioinformatics tools for analyzing the obtained DNA information. This paper summarizes the applications of bioinformatics in molecular authentication of Chinese medicinal materials, including checking phylogenetic information of the samples, searching and retrieving DNA sequence data, matching of similarity between the sequences and performing multiple sequence alignment.

Forensically informative nucleotide sequencing (FINS) for the authentication of Chinese medicinal materials.

Chinese medicinal materials may be authenticated by molecular identification. As a definitive approach to molecular identification of medicinal materials, forensically informative nucleotide sequencing (FINS) comprises four steps, namely (1) DNA extraction from biological samples, (2) selection and amplification of a specific DNA fragment, (3) determination of the sequence of the amplified DNA fragment and (4) cladistic analysis of the sample DNA sequence against a DNA database. Success of the FINS identification depends on the selection of DNA region and reference species. This article describes the techniques and applications of FINS for authenticating Chinese medicinal materials.

Molecular methods for authentication of Chinese medicinal materials

The resource authentication is required for quality assurance and control of Chinese medicine. This review provides an informative introduction to molecular methods used for authentication of Chinese medicinal materials. The technical features of the methods based on sequencing, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and hybridization are described, merits and demerits and development of the molecular methods in identification of Chinese medicinal materials are discussed.

DNA methods for identification of Chinese medicinal materials

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.