earticle

영어

Lepidii seu Descurainiae Semen, the seeds of Lepidium apetalum Willdenow and Descurainia sophia Webb. ex Parntl., is an important herbal medicine in Asian countries. Since the morphological similarity of the original plants and seeds, this herbal medicines were adulterated with the seeds of several other plant species including closely related species in the same genus. However, it is very difficult to distinguish authentic herbal medicines from adulterants at the species levels. In this study, we comparatively analyzed the external morphology of two authentic (P. apetalum and D. sophia) and four adulterant plant species (L. virginicum, Draba nemorosa, Erysimum cheiranthoides, and E. macilentum) and summarized the taxonomic classification keys to identify the species based on the morphological characteristics of plant aerial parts. These results could provide useful information for identifying authentic plant species for Lepidii seu Descurainiae Semen.