Research on species identification of commercial medicinal and food homology scented herbal tea
The adulteration and counterfeiting of herbal ingredients in medicinal and food homology(MFH)have a serious impact on the quality of herbal materials,thereby endangering human health.Compared to pharmaceutical drugs,health products derived from traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)are more easily accessible and closely integrated into consumers'daily life.However,the authentication of the authenticity of TCM ingredients in MFH has not received sufficient attention.The lack of clear standards emphasizes the necessity of conducting systematic research in this area.This study utilized DNA barcoding technology,combining ITS2,psbA-trnH,matK as universal barcode sequences,and DX,HH,JYH as specific barcode sequences,to identify the authenticity of commercial medicinal and food homology scented herbal teas.The aim was to investigate the authenticity of scented herbal tea products circulating in the market.The research results revealed that among 180 scented herbal tea samples,DNA barcodes were successfully obtained from 164 samples,while the remaining samples either lacked the target components or suffered severe DNA degradation,resulting in failed amplification.Combined with morphological identification studies,it was found that out of the 180 samples,141 were authentic,accounting for 78.33%of the total samples,while 31 samples showed adulteration and 8 samples lacked the target components,accounting for 21.67%of the total samples.Additionally,water testing revealed that 5 samples of Carthamus tinctorius herbal tea exhibited the phenomenon of weight adulteration.This study exposed the presence of adulteration and weight adulteration in scented herbal tea products,highlighting the need for regulatory authorities to expedite the establishment of quality standards in scented herbal tea industry.These findings provide valuable insights for the rapid development of the scented herbal tea industry.
medicinal and food homologyscented herbal teamolecular identificationDNA barcodeauthenticity