The drive to incorporate Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Ayurvedic herbal drugs
in Western Pharmacopoeias is undoubtedly a positive action towards safeguarding public
health.
C. rotundus rhizome is an herbal medicine within at least two traditional systems from outside
of the EU and is currently available on the EU market. In this study, a diverse collection
of samples from the EU market are analyzed using a three-tier testing approach [Fig. 1] to investigate whether the ethnobotanical origin of raw materials has a significant
impact on characteristics.
DNA barcoding analysis successfully confirmed the identity of most unprocessed market
samples as C. rotundus, and samples fell into two subgroups within the species. Two main processing types
were detected within the C. rotundus sample set of TCM origin, dried with the fibrous roots removed and sliced/dry-fried.
The Ayurvedic C. rotundus rhizome market samples were of high macroscopical conformity, and adhered to the
standards set by the Quality Standards of Indian Medicinal Plants[
1
] rather than the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India[
2
]. The generated HPTLC profiles correlated with the traditional origin of the material
and were unaffected by the processing type.
By providing an amalgamated investigation on the C. rotundus rhizome material available to EU consumers, this study highlights the significance
of the traditional background of materials. In a global commerce environment, the
standardised labelling of goods based on Latin binomials does not give a sufficient
level of detail. The quality standards required for each tradition are separate, and
often not interchangeable.
Fig. 1 The three-tier approach followed in the study.
