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

Ming Li; Kalin Yan-Bo Zhang; Paul Pui-Hay But; Pang-Chui Shaw

doi:10.1186/1749-8546-6-42

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

Chin Med. 2011 Dec 9:6:42. doi: 10.1186/1749-8546-6-42.

Authors

Ming Li¹, Kalin Yan-Bo Zhang, Paul Pui-Hay But, Pang-Chui Shaw

Affiliation

¹ State Key Laboratory of Phytochemistry and Plant Resources in West China (CUHK), Institute of Chinese Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong SAR, China. pcshaw@cuhk.edu.hk.

Abstract

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.