Common mistakes when using plant names and how to avoid them

When publishing their research on natural products and traditional preparations from plants, authors need to use scientific plant names appropriately and unambiguously – both to ensure the scientific integrity of their research and to facilitate citation and recognition of their work. Whilst many papers follow best practice, including some in this issue (p. 623, p. 631), many others would have benefitted from improvements in their research procedures or the presentation of their results. Earlier authors have quantified the problems with plant names used in medicinal plant and nutritional science publications [1,2]. Here we highlight the most common mistakes that are made, giving a few examples, and offer advice on how best to approach the use of scientific plant names, in order that these mistakes can be avoided in future