Setting priority species for conservation planning in a large and biodiverse country such as Indonesia is crucial. At least 80% of the medicinal plant species in South East Asia can be found in Indonesia, whether they are native or introduced. However, their conservation is currently ineffective due to limited human and financial resources. By examining factors such as species' occurrence status, rarity and part of the plant harvested, the various Indonesian medicinal plant species can be prioritised for conservation planning. In this study, various threatened plant species have been included in the priority list as well as those listed in related legislation. Some 233 species within 161 genera and 71 families are recommended for prioritisation. An inventory of these priority species was produced presenting compiled data including vernacular names, plant habit, harvested plant part, uses, distribution, whether it is conserved ex situ, and their DNA barcoding. Significantly 41.20% of priority species have no information on their current conservation status in either in situ or ex situ national or international genebanks.

Over the past decade, plant DNA barcoding has emerged as a scientific breakthrough and is often used to help with species identification or as a taxonomical tool. DNA barcoding is very important in medicinal plant use, not only for identification purposes but also for the authentication of medicinal products. Here, a total of 61 Indonesian medicinal plant species from 30 families and a pair of ITS2, matK, rbcL, and trnL primers were used for a DNA barcoding study consisting of molecular and sequence analyses. This study aimed to analyze how the four identified DNA barcoding regions (ITS2, matK, rbcL, and trnL) aid identification and conservation and to investigate their effectiveness for DNA barcoding for the studied species. This study resulted in 212 DNA barcoding sequences and identified new ones for the studied medicinal plant species. Though there is no ideal or perfect region for DNA barcoding of the target species, we recommend matK as the main region for Indonesian medicinal plant identification, with ITS2 and rbcL as alternative or complementary regions. These findings will be useful for forensic studies that support the conservation of medicinal plants and their national and global use.

The global database plays an important role in preserving vital data and information that aids in the conservation and sustainable use of organisms, including plant species. Many data related to Orchidaceae as one of the largest families of flowering plant species are stored in global databases. An inventory study was done on the medicinal orchid species distributed in Indonesia from several global databases. This study aimed to acquire data from several global databases (i.e., POWO, MPNS, and IUCN REDLIST) related to what and where species are distributed in Indonesia, which species have medicinal records, and other information supporting conservation and sustainable use. The result showed six thousand orchid species with 200 genera in Indonesia. Bulbophyllum, Dendrobium, and Crepidium are the top five biggest genera. More than five thousand orchid species are endemic and distributed mainly in Papua, Kalimantan, and Jawa. About 130 orchid species have medicinal use; 115 orchid species are documented as medicinal plants worldwide, including 39 species recorded in Indonesia. IUCN Redlist has assessed 430 species, with 87 species included in IUCN Redlist species; one medicinal species listed as endangered species (Vanilla planifolia Andrews); and five species assessed as least concerned species. These findings could be important as a foundation for future conservation and sustainable use studies, not only in Indonesia but also in the world.