ABSTRACT
Ayurveda Pharmacopoeia of India (API)-Reference DNA Barcode Library was created with high quality and authentic rbcL barcodes for 374 out of the 395 medicinal plants that are included in the API. The rbcL DNA barcode differentiated 319 species with the pairwise divergence ranging between 0.2 and 29.9%. Powdered raw drugs, which are very difficult to be identified by taxonomists as well as common people, seem to be the easy target for adulteration. Developing a quality control protocol for medicinal plant raw drugs by incorporating DNA barcoding as a component is essential to ensure safety to the consumers. A number of studies in India have surveyed herbal raw drug markets and tested the authenticity of the herbal drugs using DNA barcoding. These studies reported that 24% of raw drug samples of Phyllanthus amarus Schumach. & Thonn. were substituted with other phenotypically similar Phyllanthus species.
