Establish a Binary Barcode System for Accurate Identification of Crude Drugs and Associated Quality Control
建立对生药进行准确鉴定和全面质量评价的二元条形码系统

Most of the commonly used crude drugs have their own origins, which could cause confusions and untold quality in the marketplace. In this context, an accurate, rapid, and reliable identification and quality control system is urgently needed. Authors proposed in this paper to establish a binary barcode system, or a database containing DNA barcodes based on gene fragments, and chemical barcodes based on metabolic profiling, in an attempt to identify and evaluate crude drugs in an accurate manner. DNA barcodes can be used to accurately identify the species, while chemical barcodes sort out the defects of DNA barcodes for quality control. People get DNA and chemical barcodes from the samples of crude drug, and put them into a binary barcode system for needed information about the samples, including origin, producing area, quality among others. Plant specimen and crude drug samples shall be collected in line with DNA barcoding criteria, and then tested for their genes and fragments, such as matK, trnH-psbA. They should be sequenced to sit in the right region of barcodes. DNA barcode database shall be built on the platform of BOLD system. At the same time, the metabolic profiles of crude drug samples shall be determined to establish a chemical barcode database that can be analyzed using the programs such as MZmine, or CASE. Finally, the feasibility and reliability of the binary barcode system would be validated using blind trial method. Once accomplished, the system would provide us a new means for crude drug identification and quality control, allowing us to have a better understanding of the consanguinity and phylogenetic development of medicinal plants.