Gentianales is an order of flowering plant, included within the asterid clade of eudicots. It comprises more than 20,000 species in about 1,200 genera in 5 families.[1] More than 80% of the species in this order belong to the family Rubiaceae.
Many of these flowering plants are used in traditional medicine.[2] They have been used to treat pain, anxiety, cancers and neurological conditions.
According to molecular clock calculations, the lineage that led to Gentianales split from other plants about 108 million years ago[3] or 81 million years ago.[4]