Ardisia gigantifolia is a medicinal plant; its herbal medicinal product has played important roles in the ways of life of people in China. However, commercial products of this herbal medicine are frequently adulterated with Rhododendron molle root and Clerodendrum cyrtophyllum stem. In fact, R. molle has hepatotoxic effects which could pose health issues to the end user. In this study, we applied DNA barcoding coupled with high resolution melting (Bar-HRM) to distinguish A. gigantifolia and adulterant products. Two DNA barcode loci (ITS2 and ps...
