Department of Experimental Medicine (DIMES), University of Genoa, 16132 Genoa, Italy.
Pathology Unit, Department of Surgical and Diagnostic Sciences (DISC), University of Genoa, 16132 Genoa, Italy.
Molecules. 2021 Mar 4;26(5):1368. doi: 10.3390/molecules26051368.
The free online trading of herbal mixtures useful for various purposes facilitates the circulation of dangerous herbs or plant parts. This is the case, for example, of the illegal trade in seeds of (), which contain alkaloids capable of inhibiting monoamine oxidase (MAO) and are therefore used in hallucinogenic preparations, such as the psychedelic drink . The precise identification of these seeds and their distinction from other very similar but not dangerous seeds are necessary for forensic purposes and represents an advance in avoiding the adulteration of mixtures. In this work, we show the qualitative identification of seeds by optical and electron microscopy and the parallel development of a real-time qPCR test, which reveals, in a species-specific manner, the presence of DNA up to quantities lower than 1 pg. In addition to the species specificity and high sensitivity, the reaction accurately quantifies the presence of seeds or parts of seeds of in complex herbal mixtures, thus giving an indication of the danger or otherwise of the product.
各种目的的草药混合物的免费在线交易促进了危险草药或植物部分的流通。例如，（）种子的非法贸易就是这种情况，（）种子中含有能够抑制单胺氧化酶（MAO）的生物碱，因此被用于致幻制剂，如迷幻饮料。为了法医目的，有必要对这些种子进行精确的鉴定，并将其与其他非常相似但并不危险的种子区分开来，这代表了在避免混合物掺假方面的一项进展。在这项工作中，我们通过光学和电子显微镜显示了（）种子的定性鉴定，并同时开发了一种实时 qPCR 测试，该测试以种特异性的方式揭示了 DNA 的存在，其数量低至 1pg 以下。除了物种特异性和高灵敏度外，该反应还能准确地定量复杂草药混合物中（）种子或种子部分的存在，从而表明产品的危险程度。
