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Combating confusion and falsification between the genus Vitex (Lamiaceae) and Oldfieldia (Picrodendraceae) in African traditional medicine

par Nsenga Nkulu, Salvatora ;Ngoy Shutcha, Mylor;Josens, Guy ;Mutobo, C.S.;Meerts, Pierre Jacques
Référence South African journal of botany, 19, page (323-332)
Publication Publié, 2026-06-01

Article révisé par les pairs

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Résumé :

The development of the medicinal plant sector in Africa represents a major public health risk, due to the adulteration and unintentional substitution of species with intrinsic toxicity that can cause poisoning or death in consumers. This risk is amplified by the absence of regulations in most African countries. In Haut-Katanga province (Democratic Republic of Congo), Oldfieldia dactylophylla (Picrodendraceae) is frequently confused with three species of the Vitex genus (Lamiaceae) (Vitex fischeri, V. mombassae and V. madiensis subsp. milanjiensis) in the vegetative state. In this context, the aim of this study is to establish identification keys based on macro- and micro-morphological characters to facilitate authentication of these morphologically related species and control the quality of marketed drugs.Six macromorphological and 7 micromorphological traits were measured on 302 specimens. Images of the indumentum were obtained by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Uni- and multivariate statistics were applied to explore variation within and among species. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) enabled us to visualize the main macro- and micro-morphological differences between the species, while Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) confirmed the ability of the characters studied to effectively distinguish the four species. Based on 6 macromorphological traits, 91 % of the samples were correctly identified, while 90 % of the samples were correctly identified based on 7 micromorphological traits. Further work is needed to check the reliability of the identification keys outside of the study region.