Rapid authentication of endangered Cistanche Herba (Rou Cong Rong) using a high-throughput multi-SNP panel and MALDI-TOF MS platform
Rong Lei, Yixia Cao, Yifen Yang, Haolong Cong, Limei Li, Xin Li, Junxia Shi · 2026
Read Rapid authentication of endangered Cistanche Herba (Rou Cong Rong) using a high-throughput multi-SNP panel and MALDI-TOF MS platform by Rong Lei, Yixia Cao, Yifen Yang, Haolong Cong, Limei Li, Xin Li, Junxia Shi (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-12884972.txt.
Description
Rong Lei and co-authors presented this authentication test, dated 2025 in the head, for a prized medicinal plant. Cistanche, known as Rou Cong Rong, is an endangered tonic herb valued in traditional practice. Wild stocks are falling from habitat loss and overpicking, and fakes flood the market. Looks and chemical profiles often fail on processed goods where DNA is degraded.
The new test reads four telltale DNA letters with a mass spectrometry platform fed by multiplied DNA copies. It separates the true species from six common fakes. It can spot the herb at a tenth of a percent in mixes. On 27 dried samples it matched the gold-standard read every time, in about ten hours. The method promises faster policing of the herb trade.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Rong Lei, Yixia Cao, Yifen Yang, Haolong Cong, Limei Li, Xin Li, Junxia Shi |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 47 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |