Molecular Identification and Targeted Quantitative Analysis of Medicinal Materials from Species by DNA Barcoding and LC-MS/MS.

The genus is an important source of traditional Chinese medicines with multiple therapeutic effects. The identification of the correct species and accurate determination of the contents of bioactive constituents are important for quality control of medicinal materials. Here, an integrated evaluation system based on DNA barcoding for species identification and quantitative analysis by LC-MS/MS has been established. DNA barcoding based on the ITS2 barcode region showed sufficient discriminatory power to precisely identify 24 samples from seven species. The length of the 24 ITS2 sequences of samples is 227 bp, and 17 variation sites were detected. Additionally, the results of qualitative and quantitative chemical analyses by LC-MS/MS indicated that the chemical compositions of all samples were similar; while their contents of targeted alkaloids in samples from different species and origin areas were different. The contents of rhynchophylline (RC) and isorhynchophylline (IRC) were 2.9⁻1612 mg/kg and 2.60⁻1299 mg/kg in all tested samples, respectively. This study concludes that DNA barcoding should be used as the first screening step for medicinal materials. Then, integration of DNA barcoding with chemical analyses should be applied in quality control of medicinal materials in the medicinal industry.