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Are we on the right path ??

How does the Barcoding helps in conservation of Medicinal Plant Species??Can we really conserve our Biodiversity by means of Barcoding??

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Permalink Reply by Camiel Doorenweerd on December 17, 2010 at 10:12am

Dear Dhivya,

Sadly, human kind usually only sees value in nature when it has direct benefits to humans, as you point out like with medicinal plants. The first step is to discover these plants; here DNA Barcoding can help by speeding up taxonomic work. Once they are recognised, you have to know where they can be found, ie through ATBI projects. Especially if the plants are difficult to identify, DNA Barcoding can help here too. Once you know where they are you can protect those areas (ie from logging). If applicable, to prevent illegal trading you can DNA barcode processed plants which cannot be identified by normal means to catch the bad guys.

There are various ways in which DNA Barcoding can help, but it will not be the holy grail to conserving biodiversity

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Permalink Reply by Dhivya on December 20, 2010 at 10:17am

Thanks for your reply Camiel :) Well you got my point at last... i do concern more about the nature and not really its value alone..As far as i know, people show superfluous interest in confirming the possible barcode candidate to identify medicinal plants. I too think, by doing so we cannot conserve our biodiversity. you have mentioned that we can prevent the illegal trading by Barcoding the processed plants. My field of interest is the same. can u give me some suggestions regarding that?