本周《科学报告》上的一篇论文，发表了一种用于鉴别含有马兜铃酸传统草药的方法。

马兜铃酸来自马兜铃科植物，属于拥有肾毒性和致癌性的一种化学物质。在中国市场上销售的中成药中含有马兜铃科植物的约有256种。以前研究显示，由马兜铃酸引发的DNA突变率比烟草和紫外线更高。

为了开发一种区分马兜铃科植物和那些被认为是潜在替代品的方法，陈士林和他的研究团队分析了来自46个物种的158份马兜铃科样品和来自33个物种的131份容易与马兜铃科物种混淆的样品，使用的技术包括DNA条形码技术。这些分析让作者能够建立起一个可以成功分辨马兜铃科植物草药的标准条形码序列库和一个实时的PCR检测方案。研究者还证实，来自马兜铃科的大多数样本中都含有有毒的马兜铃酸。

研究者指出，传统识别干燥后的草本植物的方法主要依赖于寻找宏观和微观上的特征，而这很容易出错。研究者提出的整合鉴定系统可以为草药产品提供高效可靠的认证系统，从而保护消费者免受马兜铃酸类带来的相关健康风险。（来源：生物360）

An integrated system for identifying the hidden assassins in traditional medicines containing aristolochic acids

Abstract  Traditional herbal medicines adulterated and contaminated with plant materials from the Aristolochiaceae family, which contain aristolochic acids (AAs), cause aristolochic acid nephropathy. Approximately 256 traditional Chinese patent medicines, containing Aristolochiaceous materials, are still being sold in Chinese markets today. In order to protect consumers from health risks due to AAs, the hidden assassins, efficient methods to differentiate Aristolochiaceous herbs from their putative substitutes need to be established. In this study, 158 Aristolochiaceous samples representing 46 species and four genera as well as 131 non-Aristolochiaceous samples representing 33 species, 20 genera and 12 families were analyzed using DNA barcodes based on the ITS2 and psbA-trnH sequences. Aristolochiaceous materials and their non-Aristolochiaceous substitutes were successfully identified using BLAST1, the nearest distance method and the neighbor-joining (NJ) tree. In addition, based on sequence information of ITS2, we developed a Real-Time PCR assay which successfully identified herbal material from the Aristolochiaceae family. Using Ultra High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometer (UHPLC-HR-MS), we demonstrated that most representatives from the Aristolochiaceae family contain toxic AAs. Therefore, integrated DNA barcodes, Real-Time PCR assays using TaqMan probes and UHPLC-HR-MS system provides an efficient and reliable authentication system to protect consumers from health risks due to the hidden assassins (AAs).

原文链接：http://www.nature.com/articles/srep11318