ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To establish a method for identifying Panax ginseng and P. quinquefolius with PCR-SSCP, on the basis of specific SNP identification sites of their ITS2 bar codes.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>ITS2 sequences of P. ginseng and P. quinquefolius recorded in GenBank were searched to conduct a comparative analysis and screen out specific SNP identification sites of their ITS2 bar codes. Based on that, the Polymerase Chain Reaction-Single Strand Conformation Polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) method was adopted for analyzing 11 P. ginseng samples and 10 P. quinquefolius samples and verifying sequencing of their PCR products.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>The P. ginseng and P. quinquefolius samples had the same agarose mages of PCR-SSCP with the standard medicines. There were significant differences between the PCR-SSCP agarose mages of P. ginseng and P. quinquefolius, with identifical identification results between PCR-SSCP and sequencing.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Compared with the sequencing method, PCR-SSCP is so rapid and accurate that it can be used for identifying P. ginseng and P. quinquefolius medicines.</p>