中药材种子DNA条形码鉴定研究进展

种子是中药产业的源头,中药材种子的准确鉴定不仅关系到中药材的真伪,更关系到中药的安全性和有效性。由于多数中药材种子体积较小、内含物丰富、形态特征易受种子成熟度和环境条件的影响,难以通过传统方法进行有效鉴定。DNA条形码技术利用一段标准的DNA序列从基因层面对物种进行鉴定,不受环境等外部因素影响,具有通用、快速、准确等特点,逐渐成为中药材种子鉴定的研究热点。简述了DNA条形码技术在中药材种子鉴定中的研究现状,分析了中药材种子DNA条形码鉴定的技术要点,总结了不同类型中药材种子进行DNA条形码鉴定的原则,并提出了利用宏条形码技术鉴定市售混合中药材种子的研究方法,为中药材种子鉴定提供新的研究思路。

Advances in identification of traditional Chinese medicinal materials seeds using DNA barcoding technology

Seeds are the source of the Chinese medicine industry. The accurate identification of seeds is not only related to the genuineness of Chinese medicinal materials, but also related to the safety and effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine. Since a large proportion of Chinese medicinal material seeds are small in size, rich in inclusions, and their morphological characters are easy to be changed by the grade of maturity and environmental conditions, it is difficult to identify seeds through traditional methods. DNA barcoding is a novel genetic method designed for accurate species identification using a standard DNA locus, and it has gradually become a research hotspot for the seed authentication of Chinese medicinal materials. In this paper, we briefly summarized the recent research developments of the DNA barcoding identification for Chinese medicinal material seeds, demonstrate the technical characteristics of using DNA barcoding to authenticate the seeds of Chinese medicinal materials, and pointed out that different protocols should be employed according to the types of seeds. We further proposed a research method for the identification of commercially available Chinese medicinal materials seed mixtures using the DNA metabarcoding, which provides new ideas for the identification of Chinese medicinal material seeds.