ABSTRACT
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a common chronic metabolic disorder characterized by the destruction of pancreatic β cells or reduced insulin activity/secretion, which has a significant effect on all age group peoples around the world. About 20% of the global population is known to get affected by this disease as per the World Health Organization (WHO) globally it is projected that about 336 million people will be affected by 2030. Many associated adverse effects have been found with the formulations that are used currently to treat this disease. Globally, the use of plants and their parts as source of medicines for both preventive and curative purposes is an ancient tradition. The quality of herbal medicine depends on the authenticity of the 264raw material. A lot of adulteration has been attributed to increased global demand for raw herbal drugs. The primary source of adulteration is in the plant resource, mainly due to the misidentification of phenotypically similar plant species from the same genus. Several physical-chemical methods such as chromatography and spectroscopy-based methods are widely used to detect the adulteration in the herbal powders, however these methods are influenced by genetic, developmental stage and environmental factors. Similarly, medicinal property of any plant species depends on the production of phytochemical compounds or secondary metabolites. Thus, there is a need for the development of alternative methods. The medicinal plants interact with their environment that determines their active constituents. Molecular markers analysis deals with the identification and exploitation of naturally occurring DNA sequence polymorphisms; these markers can be utilized to detect the adulteration, accurate identification of plant species and improvement of medicinal plants for their active ingredients through Marker Assisted Selection (MAS).
