By combining the stringency of CTAB lysis with the speed and ease-of-use of silica-membrane purification, ISOLATE II Plant DNA Kit provides a fast method for the purification of high-quality genomic DNA from most plant cells, particularly those rich in polysaccharides, including leaves, bark, roots and fruits as well as dung, animal-fecal, soil and compost samples. Some plant tissues do not lyse well in CTAB and so an SDS-based lysis buffer is also provided as an alternative. Residual amounts of RNA remaining can be removed using RNase treatment during lysis with the RNase A supplied in the kit. ISOLATE II Plant DNA Kit shows excellent recovery of plant DNA when different homogenization techniques are used. The silica membrane in the columns is optimized to improve DNA binding to give high-yields of high-quality DNA, even from difficult samples such as freeze-dried budding leaves. The extracted DNA is ready to use for subsequent downstream reactions such as PCR. ISOLATE II Plant DNA Kit has been designed to deliver optimal performance in qPCR in tandem with SensiFAST Real-Time PCR Kits and in end-point PCR with MyTaq DNA Polymerase.