DNA Barcoding and Molecular Techniques for Authentication of Aloe vera – Review Article

Aloe vera is used in pharmaceutical, cosmetic, food and herbal preparations, making reliable identification of its botanical source important. Macroscopic examination, sensory assessment and microscopy can help identify intact plant material, but these approaches become less informative after drying, powdering, extraction or blending. DNA metabarcoding can be used to study many plant species in a mixed sample, while DNA barcoding looks at specific regions of the genome, such as matK, rbcL and ITS/ITS2. In the case of Aloe vera authentication, this assessment considers traditional identification along with PCR-based methods, DNA sequencing, RAPD, target-capture sequencing and metabarcoding. It also discusses practical constraints: processing can reduce recoverable DNA, and standard barcode regions may not separate every closely related Aloe species. Molecular findings should therefore be interpreted with validated reference sequences and complementary quality tests [1–5, 15, 18–22].