Application of DNA Barcoding for Quality Control of Herbal Drugs and Their Phytopharmaceuticals

Medicinal plants have been used for thousands of years and nowadays are extensively employed to treat diverse illnesses. The increasing consumption of medicinal plants and its derivative products has led to an increase of adulterant material during the manufacturing process. The quality of the medicinal active products could be affected by reducing the concentration of bioactive metabolites, and by the presence of toxic compounds. DNA barcoding has become a robust methodology to identify and authenticate medicinal plants. In the present paper, we reviewed 366 manuscripts of medicinal plants published in the last 10 years, and the results of applying DNA barcoding were analyzed. We are also providing taxonomical information, medicinal properties, distribution of investigated material by country, and some representative active compounds. Overall, it was possible to identify 17 different barcode regions that were used to study medicinal plant material. Particularly, the use of ITS2 has increased due to its high discrimination rates at low taxonomic level; however, a multilocus DNA barcode approach could be a better tool to properly identify medicinal plants. Some emerging technologies that allow facing the limitations of DNA barcoding as DNA mini-barcoding, metabarcoding and bar-HRM technology, were reviewed. Future challenges will be the global application of the improved DNA barcoding technologies to properly authenticate and identify medicinal plants. DNA barcoding must be used in countries with a high consumption of herbal remedies in order to provide safe and effective medicinal products. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]