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[Microscopic identification of commercial Herba Cistanches by digital imaging technique]
Mian Zhang1, Xiaoli Fu, Shengyong Wang
1Department of Pharmacognosy, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210038.
Objective:
To identify the commercial drugs of Herba Cistanches collected from 10 different areas.
Method:
Descriptions identification and digital imaging technique.
Result:
The original plants of the commercial drugs were three species, Cistanche deserticola Y. C. Ma, C. salsa (C. A. Mey) Benth et Hook. f. and C. tubelosa (Schrenk.) R. Wight.
Conclusion:
The confusion of Herba Cistanches in markets is exist. The main current species was C. deserticola, C. salsa (each 2/5) and C. tubelosa (1/5). The descriptions of C. deserticola and C. salsa are similar and not easy to distinguish. But the digital photographs offered by the paper visually reflected the microscopic differences of two species.
