**8.9 Molecular markers**

Molecular markers are the constituents that include primary and secondary metabolites and other macromolecules like nucleic acids. DNA as a marker can be a reliable instrument as it is in cases of disputed identity of human beings, in establishing the genetic makeup and polymorphisms of each species [51]. The main advantage associated with DNA is that, it can be extracted from both fresh and dried organic tissue of the botanical material and thus is not restricted by the physiological nature of the sample to be assessed [52, 53]. Various types of DNA based molecular techniques such as hybridization based methods, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based methods and sequencing based methods are utilized to evaluate DNA polymorphisms [54–56].
