RESUMO
Objective:Five popular DNA barcoding sequences，namely ITS，ITS2，rbcL，matK and psbA-trnH，were employed to evaluate the identification efficiency of multi-source ethnodrug Rodgersiae Rhizoma，and the most suitable sequence was then screened out. Method:Efficiency of polymerase chain reaction（PCR） amplification，success rate of sequencing，intra- and inter-specific distances calculated by rank sum test，phylogenetic tree constructed with neighbor-joining（NJ） method and identification efficiency assessed by Blast 1 and NJ method were adopted in this study. Result:Efficiency of PCR amplification and success rate of sequencing for ITS，ITS2，psbA-trnH，rbcL and matK were 100%，96.61% ，100%，98.31%，100%，100%，100%，100%，98.31% and 98.31%，respectively. Intra- and inter-specific genetic distances and identification achievement rate for psbA-trnH were the highest among the five candidate sequences. Besides，the average coalescent depth was less than the smallest interspecific distance for psbA-trnH. Phylogenetic tree also illustrated that Rodgersiae Rhizoma could be distinguished based on psbA-trnH. Conclusion:According to the findings，psbA-trnH was superior to other DNA barcodes. Therefore， psbA-trnH was recommended as the ideal DNA barcode for the identification of multi-source ethnodrug Rodgersiae Rhizoma.