Research Article Stability and Accuracy Assessment of Identification of Traditional Chinese Materia Medica Using DNA Barcoding:

Copyright © 2013 Dianyun Hou et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DNA barcoding is a novel molecular identification method that aids in identifying traditional Chinese materia medica using traditional identification techniques. However, further study is needed to assess the stability and accuracy of DNA barcoding. Flos Lonicerae Japonicae, a typical medicinal flower, is widely used in China, Korea, and other Southeast Asian countries. However, Flos Lonicerae Japonicae and its closely related species have beenmisused and traded at varying for awide range of prices.Therefore, Flos Lonicerae Japonicaemust be accurately identified. In this study, the ITS2 and psbA-trnH regionswere amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Sequence assembly was performed using CodonCode Aligner V 3.5.4. The intra- versus inter-specific variations were assessed using six metrics and “barcoding gaps. ” Species identification was conducted using BLAST1 and neighbor-joinin