CRISPR-Cas-based nucleic acid detection for medicinal plant authentication: Recent advances and industrial prospects

Chinese medicinal resources play a significant role in the global pharmaceutical, health supplement, and food industries. However, the prevalence of adulteration and misidentification threatens medication safety and industry sustainability. Traditional and even modern molecular methods often lack the speed, simplicity, and cost-effectiveness required for on-site application. The CRISPR/Cas12 system, particularly Cas12a, demonstrates transformative potential as an innovative solution for on-site authentication of medicinal plants. Unlike conventional techniques, Cas12a, upon target DNA recognition, exhibits a unique “collateral cleavage” activity that nonspecifically cuts ssDNA. This property, when combined with isothermal amplification techniques (such as RPA, LAMP), enables the development of highly sensitive and specific nucleic acid detection platforms. These platforms are characterized by minimal equipment dependency, visual readout capability, and suitability for field use, thereby enhancing quality control across the entire industrial crop processing chain. This review introduces the latest advances in CRISPR/Cas12 applications for medicinal plant identification, covering its detection mechanism, integration with portable technologies, field applicability, and enhanced capability for discriminating closely related species. We systematically evaluate how this technology bridges the gap between laboratory accuracy and practical, field‑ready quality assurance in the herbal supply chain, highlighting its potential for industrial adoption and scalable crop verification. Finally, this article presents the challenges and prospects of the CRISPR-Cas system in medicinal plants, aiming to provide a comprehensive reference for the integration of CRISPR-based diagnostics into herbal authentication systems, thereby promoting the modernization and global standardization of traditional medicine.