Introduction: Herbal medicines are medicines that contain parts of medicinal plants or substances like extracts. According to initial records, medicinal plants were used in India, China, Egypt, Greece and Roman times for 5,000 years. The oldest and most important Indian texts, Rigveda, Atharvaveda, Charak Samhita and Sushruta Samhita, include the use of many herbal drugs (Khamboj et al). In 3000 BC, the Egyptian text Papyrus Ebers, named after the German Egyptologist Georg Ebers, contains 800 recipes and a description of 700 medicinal plants such as aloe, colocynth, Indian hemp, garlic, poppy opium, juniper, cumin, castor beans and gum arabic (Aksel Bernhoft et al 2008). Thus, for several thousand years, medicinal plants have been used by humans for different therapeutic purposes and have been transformed into modern medicine, like many modern medicines from plant sources. Many life-saving drugs are isolated/extracted from medicinal plants, including vincristine (Vinca), digoxin (Digitalis), quinine (cinchona bark), atropine (Datura), artimicin (Artimisia annua) , morphine (from opium poppy) (Vickers and Zollman, 1999). According to WHO, the use of herbal medicines has increased day by day up to two to three times as compared to conventional medicines in different forms like nutraceuticals, Ayurvedic medicines, traditional Chinese medicine, functional foods, etc. (Evans, 1994). In the United States alone, sales of all herbal products in 2011 were estimated at $5.3 billion (Blu¬menthal et al. 2012). In reality, the herbal industry is just another pharmaceutical industry, selling products that are poorly regulated and likely do not work for the claimed indications (Steven Novella et al 2103). Various inhabitants of forests and metropolises also acquire ...... middle of paper ...... chemical constituents from plants. In the identification of medicinal plant genetic markers, fitness does not restrict detection because genetic markers can be isolated from fresh or dried organic tissues. DNA-based techniques have been particularly useful for the authentication of these medicinal plant species, which are frequently replaced or adulterated with other indistinguishable morphological and/or phytochemical species [7-10]. A number of DNA fingerprinting methods have been developed in recent years, including: RFLP (Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism) RAPD (Random Amplification of Polymorphic DNA) SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) STR (Short tandem repeat)