Herba Dendrobii (Shihu) is a commonly used Chinese medicine derived from the stem
of several orchid species belonging to the genus Dendrobium. It is rather expensive and adulteration is frequent. Proper authentication of the
medicinal species is necessary to protect consumers and support conservation measures.
DNA sequences of the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS 2) of 16 Dendrobium species were shown to be significantly different from one another by an average of
12.4 % and from non-orchids and Pholidota (an adulterant of Shihu) by 29.8 % and 18.8 %, respectively. The intra-specific variation
among the Dendrobium species studied was only about 1 %. Therefore, ITS 2 regions could be adopted as
a molecular marker for differentiating medicinal Dendrobium species from one another and also from non-orchids and adulterants.
Dendrobium
- Orchidaceae - DNA sequence - orchid - endangered species
