A Review of Recent Phytomedicinal Investigations and the Need for DNA Barcoding of Endemic Plants of Northern Cyprus

Aims: To review the phytomedicinal researches on endemic plants of Northern Cyprus and to assess the plants of their DNA barcoding status.

Study Design: A review.

Methodology: This work reviewed available and accessible original articles in EBSCO, Ovid MEDLINE®, PubMed®, ScienceDirectTM, Scopus® and Web of ScienceTM databases on phytomedicinal investigations and BOLD System, MMDBD version 1.5 and GenBank® on DNA barcodes of the endemic plants of Northern Cyprus until May, 2020. Using keywords searches related to phytochemistry, biological activity and DNA barcoding, DNA Sequences and the data obtain evaluated and the information that does not meet the inclusion criteria were excluded. We believe that this information would tentatively help researchers to ethically explore these plants for their Medicinal and Aromatic potentials.

Results: Only 6 of the 20 endemic plants of Northern Cyprus were phytopharmaceutically investigated, while DNA sequences of 5 were found to be deposited in the publicly accessible databases accounting for 30% and 25% of the total plants respectively.

Conclusion: Endemism is related to uniqueness in features including the phytomedicinal features, thus Northern Cyprus endemic plants hold ample of such. However the results of this review showed that only few were harnessed for their medicinal properties and hence the need for their pharmacological properties and comprehensive barcoding for proper authentication, detection of adulteration, and quality control.