CDMMM: a comprehensive platform of traditional Indian medicinal plant DNA barcodes and metabolite fingerprints database

Abstract

Abstract Herbal medicines, derived from medicinal plants, are in high demand due to global population growth and the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases; however, the use of substitutes or adulterants can compromise the quality of these medicines. DNA barcoding and metabolite fingerprinting are used to identify plants and ensure the safety of drugs. The effectiveness of authentication methods depends on the availability and coverage of the reference library. However, reference DNA barcodes and metabolite fingerprint libraries for traditional Indian medicinal plants are lacking, which hinders the authentication of herbal drugs and the elucidation of the therapeutic effects of secondary metabolites. In the present study, we developed a user-friendly ‘Comprehensive Database of Medicinal Plants, Molecular Markers, and Metabolite Fingerprinting (CDMMM)’ that provides extensive details on traditional Indian medicinal plants used in drug formulations, DNA barcode sequences, metabolites, and their therapeutic targets associated with diseases. CDMMM is an expandable data resource comprising 89 experimentally obtained DNA barcode accessions from 67 plant species, 3033 annotated plant metabolites, and 1414 therapeutic targets associated with 441 diseases from 20 plant species. The ever-expanding CDMMM resource is available at https://slsdb.manipal.edu/cdmmm/ . Overall, it is a powerful platform for taxonomy, systematics, species identification, and drug discovery, promoting knowledge and addressing taxonomic uncertainties.