Diego Rivera1, Robert Allkin2, Concepción Obón3, Francisco Alcaraz4, Rob Verpoorte5, Michael Heinrich6. 1. Dpto Biología Vegetal, Campus de Espinardo, Universidad de Murcia, Murcia 30100, Spain. Electronic address: drivera@um.es. 2. Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, London, United Kingdom. Electronic address: b.allkin@kew.org. 3. Dpto. Biología Aplicada, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Universidad Miguel Hernández, Ctra. Beniel Km 3.2, 03312 Orihuela, Alicante, Spain. Electronic address: cobon@umh.es. 4. Dpto Biología Vegetal, Campus de Espinardo, Universidad de Murcia, Murcia 30100, Spain. 5. Division of Pharmacognosy, Section Metabolomics, Institute Biology Leiden, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands. Electronic address: verpoorte@chem.leidenuniv.nl. 6. Research Cluster Biodiversity and Medicines/ Centre for Pharmacognosy and Phytotherapy, UCL School of Pharmacy, University of London, London, United Kingdom; Department of Pharmaceutics and Industrial Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: m.heinrich@ucl.ac.uk.
Abstract
ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: To avoid ambiguities and error, ethnopharmacological and any other research on plants requires precise and appropriate use of botanical scientific nomenclature. AIMS: This paper explores problems and impacts of ambiguous or erroneous use of botanical scientific nomenclature in ethnopharmacological studies. It suggests how the frequency and impact of such errors can be reduced. APPROACH AND METHODS: We assessed 214 articles published in the three first volumes of the Journal of Ethnopharmacology in 2012: 140(1) to 141 (3) and 214 articles in Phytomedicine (2012-2013): 19 (5) to 20 (7). RESULTS: Amongst the articles reviewed 308 articles cited plant names incorrectly. Among the articles studied 9178 Latin scientific names were cited and 3445 were incorrect in some respect. Simple principles applied in a systematic way and used together with open-access reference resources could help authors, referees and editors of ethnopharmacological, phytochemical, toxicological and clinical studies to reduce ambiguity about the identity and name of the species involved and thus significantly improve the quality of the final publication. CONCLUSIONS: We have identified a series of key steps needed to solve the taxonomic ambiguities and errors. Aside from reinforcing existing policies, journals will have to implement better tools to ensure the proper authentication of materials. The new electronic publishing environments offer novel ways to develop such botanical-taxonomic tools.
ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: To avoid ambiguities and error, ethnopharmacological and any other research on plants requires precise and appropriate use of botanical scientific nomenclature. AIMS: This paper explores problems and impacts of ambiguous or erroneous use of botanical scientific nomenclature in ethnopharmacological studies. It suggests how the frequency and impact of such errors can be reduced. APPROACH AND METHODS: We assessed 214 articles published in the three first volumes of the Journal of Ethnopharmacology in 2012: 140(1) to 141 (3) and 214 articles in Phytomedicine (2012-2013): 19 (5) to 20 (7). RESULTS: Amongst the articles reviewed 308 articles cited plant names incorrectly. Among the articles studied 9178 Latin scientific names were cited and 3445 were incorrect in some respect. Simple principles applied in a systematic way and used together with open-access reference resources could help authors, referees and editors of ethnopharmacological, phytochemical, toxicological and clinical studies to reduce ambiguity about the identity and name of the species involved and thus significantly improve the quality of the final publication. CONCLUSIONS: We have identified a series of key steps needed to solve the taxonomic ambiguities and errors. Aside from reinforcing existing policies, journals will have to implement better tools to ensure the proper authentication of materials. The new electronic publishing environments offer novel ways to develop such botanical-taxonomic tools.