Abstract
Turtle shells and their gelled products are familiar in some countries as foods, tonics
and medicines. These shells may come from endangered and protected species, requiring
the identification of the species present to enforce national and international legislation.
We report on the design of five combinations of primer pairs for the identification
of turtle shells and shell fragments used as ornaments, food products and medicines.
The types of samples used are those encountered frequently and will typically contain
highly degraded DNA. The success rate for species identification using the test described
is dependent upon the choice of primer sets used and the length of the expected amplification
product. Gelled products were simulated by the process of decoction for up to 12 h, after which all the turtle species could be identified from the liquid samples.
This study establishes a method for the identification of commercial turtle shells
and illustrates a simulated case using gelled products.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: December 01, 2008
Accepted:
October 14,
2008
Received in revised form:
October 9,
2008
Received:
June 9,
2008
Identification
Copyright
© 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
