Application of high‐resolution melting analysis for authenticity testing of valuable Dendrobium commercial products

Abstract BACKGROUND The accurate identification of botanical origin in commercial products is important to ensure food authenticity and safety for consumers. The Dendrobium species have long been commercialised as functional food supplements and herbal medicines in Asia. Three valuable Dendrobium species, namely Dendrobium officinale , D. huoshanense and D. moniliforme, are often mutually adulterated in trade products in pursuit of higher profit. RESULTS In this paper, a rapid and reliable semi‐quantitative method for identifying the botanical origin of Dendrobium products in terminal markets was developed using high‐resolution melting (HRM) analysis with specific primer pairs to target the trnL‐F region. The HRM analysis method detected amounts of D. moniliforme adulterants as low as 1% in D. huoshanense or D. officinale products. CONCLUSION The results have demonstrated that HRM analysis is a fast and effective tool for the differentiation of these Dendrobium species both for their authenticity as well as for the semi‐quantitative determination of the purity of their processed products. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry