ABSTRACT
Panax quinquefolium and Panax ginseng were investigated using non-linear chemical fingerprint technology, and a novel method to identify two ginsengs and different producing areas of P. quinquefolium was put forward. The non-linear chemical fingerprints of P. quinquefolium(collected from Canada, Jilin and Shaanxi)and P. ginseng (collected from Jilin)were obtained by reactions took place in the system of "H2SO4-MnSO4-CH3COCH3-NaBrO3" and their system similarities were evaluated. In the meantime, the quality difference in P. quinquefolium from different producing areas was evaluated using HPLC to determine the contents of main 7 ginsenosides. As a result, the non-linear chemical fingerprints exhibited a good reproducibility and characteristic when dosage of detection was 0.4 g and the reaction temperature was 37 ℃. The fingerprint characteristics of P. quinquefolium were obviously different from P. ginseng. The two species of ginsengs could be distinguished by the visual fingerprint characteristics, and P. quinquefolium from different producing areas were identified by the system similarities. Furthermore, HPLC analysis showed that the quality P. quinquefolium from different producing areas was varied, which indicated that rapid identification and quality evaluation of P. quinquefolium become very important and necessary. Compared with HPLC technology, non-linear chemical fingerprint is a more convenient, rapid and economic technology. This study provides a novel strategy to distinguish and evaluate P. quinquefolium and P. ginseng, which will provide a reference for the quality evaluation and control of Chinese medicine.