Dear Editor,

Pinellia Tenore, a small genus of the monocot family Araceae, consists of only nine perennial herbaceous species and is mainly distributed in East Asia [1]. Pinellia plants have been widely used as herbal medicines in Asia for over 2000 years. Among these species, P. ternata and P. pedatisecta are most widely used as traditional medicinal herbs [2]. In China, the medicinal utilization of P. ternata and P. pedatisecta was first documented in the Divine Farmer’s Materia Medica (Chinese name: ‘Shennong Bencao Jing’) during the Eastern Han dynasty (25–250 AD). Tubers produced by these plants have been traditionally utilized to treat vomiting, infection, and inflammation [3]. Modern pharmacological studies have indicated that the pharmacological effects of Pinellia plants are closely related to endogenous components, such as plant lectins, alkaloids, amino acids, nucleosides, and polysaccharides [2]. P. ternata has been listed in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia as a common traditional Chinese medicine. However, to date no genomic resources have been reported in the genus Pinellia, which greatly limits further studies on this valuable resource.

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