DNA barcoding is a taxonomic method that uses a short orthologous DNA sequences to identify an organism as belonging to a particular species. This method have been proposed and initiated to facilitate biodiversity studies. MaturaseK gene (MatK) of chloroplast is highly conserved in plant systematics which is involved in Group II intron splicing. The size of the gene is 1500 bp in length, located within the intron of trnK. In the present study, MatK gene from Zingiberaceae was taken for the analysis of phylogeny. The family of Zingiberaceae comprises 47 genera with medicinal values. The matK gene sequence have been obtained from National Centre for Biotechnology information (NCBI) and used for this analysis. The sequence alignments were performed by Vector NTI 9.0, prediction of transition/transversion rates and phylogenetic analyses were carried out by MEGA software. The objective of this study is to evaluate generic, species variation and phylogenetic relationships of Zingiberaceae family by using the chloroplast MatK gene sequences available from genbank. The result indicates that the Zingiberaceae genus Afromonum, Alpinia, Globba, Curcuma and Zingiber shows polyphylogeny. These results support the claim that DNA barcoding is a powerful tool for taxonomy and biogeography with utility for identifying cryptic species, biogeograhic patterns and resolving classifications at the rank of genera and species. From this study it could be concluded that the MatK gene is a good candidate for DNA barcoding of plant family Zingiberaceae

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