• Akanksha Priya

According to the National Medicinal Plant Board of India, of the 6000-7000 medicinal plants, 960 are traded with 178 being of high trade volume of more than 100 metric tonnes per annum. Many of them have become rare due to overexploitation. Consequently, instances of substitution/adulteration by look-alike substitutes have increased. Thus, it becomes necessary to authenticate herbal market samples, a task difficult to accomplish with the current taxonomic methods. DNA barcoding, which requires a minute amount of tissue or even its DNA for the identification of species, could be a potent tool for deciphering botanical identities of herbal samples, available in fragmented or powdered form. Tinctures are alcoholic extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol. The solvent concentration ranges of which ranges from 15-90% but the most common being 20% in the case of herbal medicines. The barcode locus, ITS2 was used to authenticate the identity of twenty plant tinctures belonging to sixteen families sold online. Of the twenty tincture samples, ITS2 sequences of 7 showed maximum resemblance with Abutilon pannosum, also called as ‘Kanghibunti’, a medicinal plant species used to treat ulcer, urinary tract infection, diabetes, anaemia and haemorrhoids.

DNA Barcoding, adulteration, tinctures, ITS2.

"An Attempt to authenticate herbal tinctures using DNA Barcoding", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.10, Issue 9, page no.d42-d46, September-2023, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2309304.pdf

"An Attempt to authenticate herbal tinctures using DNA Barcoding", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.10, Issue 9, page no. ppd42-d46, September-2023, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2309304.pdf