Bioprospecting should be considered to protect the indigenous knowledge of traditional people from greedy corporate entities making profit by exploiting indigenous communities.

The correct identification of plants is important in the nonscientific, commercial world as it is to ecologists and taxonomists. Genetic markers are broadly known as “DNA barcode forensics” and are being employed to ensure the identity and purity of commercial products in order to protect endangered species in illegal trading. A well-documented DNA barcode (rbcl and ITS2) helped to find that 59% of the products contained plant species not listed on the labels (many of them “fillers”) which has not only aroused attention in the scientific world but also made national news on New York Times. The news resulted in a backlash from the herbal supplement community concluded by recommending that the commercial herbal industry should routinely use DNA barcoding as a verification of the authenticity of constituents in all herbal products [35, 36].

Natural products are more competitive in the international market and increase consumer health, and now problems are encountered due to quality failures; i.e., Ceylon Cinnamon has a risk of losing the international market value due to the adulteration [31, 37]; true cinnamon stands out as the most expensive in the global market [38]. Adulterants from the genuine products in cases where there is a high physical resemblance between the entities, or in the instances of change in the physical form, could be discriminated using molecular markers [39].

Examining genetic diversity and lineage sorting of different genes in closely related species provides significant information for species delimitation and phylogenetic analysis. As genetic methods became more economical and accessible, the phylogenetic analysis made it possible to reveal hidden species diversity that was undetectable using morphological analysis [40].

DNA-based taxonomic identification has become an essential tool, and significant progress has been made on the improvement since the DNA barcoding concept was proposed [41]. DNA barcoding is a robust technique that uses a short sequence of DNA consisting of the invariable nucleotide sequence in subspecies but with sufficient divergence to discriminate between the species [42–44].

The developing countries are suffering to establish proper plant barcoding systems such as NGS, but they lack technology and economy. A high specific and cost-effective identification should be introduced in low- and middle-income countries where they could stop biopiracy in their territory to elevate the economy. Many low costs and simple barcoding methods have been proposed, but there is a conundrum for the cost-effective barcoding method for plant specimen identification [45, 46].

Given the above evidence, the barcoding methods established to date are not sensitive and efficient enough to provide noteworthy intraspecies deviations, which aid in identifying different species of plants such as cinnamon. Identification of microsatellites in plants could be a key to specify the plants and also clearly indicate the authenticity of species and the country. Microsatellite fingerprinting is based on high genetic variability and is one of the best molecular tools for elucidating the structure and genetic diversity of populations [47, 48].

Bioprospecting is a key method to overcome biopiracy, and the Nagoya Protocol has addressed and given solutions to major issues like the exploitation of traditional knowledge by innovations registered through the patent system. This is one of the main perceived injustices from biopiracy [49].

However, global governance to address biopiracy and uninterrupted sustenance of flora and fauna as exemplified by the recent Nagoya Protocol covered few fundamental issues faced by the locals and the lack of resources allocated for the management of biodiversity. The ethical, social, and political issues surrounding bioprospecting should be considered to protect the indigenous knowledge of traditional people from copyrighting corporate entities [50, 51]. For years, Private-Public Partnership (PPP) was used as an option to build agreements among organizations to stick on regulations for the transparent transactions, but greedy corporate entities and corrupted academics are still in the way of making profits by doing biopiracy. The aforementioned notion must be elaborated and acknowledged by all participants prior to any transaction of intellectual property transaction, and a reasonable compensation has been settled that befits the requirement of the locals [52].

Developing the involvement of private actors and the general public in a joint process could be archived by the concept of the Public-Private-People partnership (4P) which is an emerging approach in targeting attention to adding the general public to Public-Private partnerships and particularly addressing the problems of exclusion and lack of transparency. The 4P could be an ideal platform for crushing biopiracy with technological advancements [53].

Although individuals should not be able to make independent decisions about bioprospecting, nevertheless appropriate representatives of communities can have the authority to do so. 4Ps that employ corporate, indigenous, civil society organization partners, and individuals, as well as local researchers, should be held responsible in taking initiatives to formulate a system that paves the way for a mutual benefit. Via investments in 4P partnerships, all participants will hold equilateral intellectual property rights and responsibilities resulting in holding each other responsible for misconduct of a certain parties, and this also includes upcoming commercial endeavours. This concept if implemented as a best practise globally will promote the wellbeing of current and future populous [19].