Abstract
Key Personnel
Specific Objectives

Abstract
A Research Project entitled "Identification and Characterization of Botanicals" will be coordinated by the Missouri Botanical Garden. Botanists at the Garden will conduct research to address problems commercial firms have in confirming the identity of plant species used to produce dietary supplements. Protocols will be developed for working with the type of bulk plant material that is used in the manufacture of most herbal products. The effort will be aimed at developing useful methods to confirm accurate identity of plants and assess their levels of purity in commercial settings. The major goal of the program will be to study the major herbs of commerce and produce manuals for their identification based on macro-morphological and microscopic features. The manuals will provide a comprehensive treatment of the species important as botanical dietary supplements with full nomenclatural and taxonomic information, complete morphological descriptions, and keys for the separation of species constructed specifically for working with incomplete plant material and based on characters present in the plant parts used in herbal products. The program will also develop an herb nursery at the Shaw Arboretum to grow the major herbs of commerce. The nursery will supply plant material to researchers at the Garden and University of Missouri, Columbia and will work with other cultivation sites to study how chemical composition of plants varies from one locality to another. The herb nursery will also be used to produce authenticated reference plant material that can be used by the herbal products industry for laboratory comparison to confirm identification of purchased plant material.

Key Personel
James S. Miller — Principal Investigator (Missouri Botanical Garden)
Scott Woodbury — Horticulturalist (Missouri Botanical Garden)

Specific Objectives
A Research Project will be implemented at the Missouri Botanical Garden that will focus on the first area of research emphasis, identification and characterization of botanical ingredients. The program will have the following specific aims:

Objective 1
Develop a list of the plant species of importance to the botanical dietary supplement industry. This will define the scope of identification issues for each of the 50-100 most important herbs of commerce by listing 1) the closely related species that might be confused with each important herbal species, 2) unrelated species that may be confused with important herbal species, and 3) weeds and other plants that might be included as extraneous material during collection or harvest of important medicinal herbs.

Objective 2
Prepare a manual for the identification of the plant species of importance to the botanical dietary supplement industry. This will consist of a series of botanical monographs that provide 1) full descriptions of both macro-morphological and microscopic features of each of the major herbs of commerce, 2) keys and other guides to help distinguish desired species from those with which they might be confused, and 3) guides for the recognition of species that may commonly occur as contaminants.

Objective 3
Develop and document procedures that can be used to confirm the identity of the plant species of importance to the botanical dietary supplement industry by chemical means or use of DNA sequencing. This will be conducted in collaboration with laboratories at the University of Missouri, Columbia.

Objective 4
Develop a source of cultivated plants that can be used to produce properly vouchered authenticated reference plant material (ARPM). This portion of the project will supply material whose identity has been certified and permanently referenced by herbarium vouchers to 1) provide material for microscopic analysis to be used in the preparation of the guide for identification of the major herbs of commerce, 2) provide certified material for use in the other Research Projects and Core programs associated with the Center, and 3) provide ARPM to the herbal products industry that can be used to help confirm identification of material used in the production of dietary supplements.