Abstract Panax ginseng and Panax quinquefolius are two of the most commonly used Panax species with similar morphology but different pharmacological effects. These two species may be substituted for each other due to commercial interest or misidentification caused by similarity in appearance. Therefore, botanical origin authentication of ginseng food products is of great importance for their origin authenticity control and food safety. However, DNA degradation is the chief obstacle to marker-based origin authentication of ginseng products. In this study, indel markers were exploited from introns of 6 ginseng contigs by using an intron-flanking strategy. Specific primers were respectively designed for Panax ginseng and P. quinquefolius based on their insertion sequences in mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit II (cox2) gene. The developed multiplex PCR assay, mitigating the deficiency of DNA degradation, was proved to be effective for botanical origin authentication of ginseng food products. Furthermore, the assay can detect 0.1 % of intentional adulteration of P. quinquefolius into P. ginseng down to 0.001 ng of genomic DNA and vice versa. This study provides an accurate and reliable DNA method for botanical origin authentication of ginseng food products, and the presented method can be employed in origin authentication of other herbal preparations.

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开发一种用于人参食品植物来源认证的准确可靠的 DNA 方法

摘要 人参和西洋参是最常用的两种人参，形态相似但药理作用不同。这两个物种可能会因商业利益或因外观相似而导致的错误识别而相互替代。因此，人参食品的植物来源认证对其原产地真实性控制和食品安全具有重要意义。然而，DNA 降解是基于标记的人参产品原产地认证的主要障碍。在这项研究中，通过使用内含子侧翼策略从 6 个人参重叠群的内含子中利用 indel 标记。根据人参和西洋参在线粒体细胞色素c氧化酶亚基II（cox2）基因中的插入序列分别设计了特异性引物。已开发的多重 PCR 检测可减轻 DNA 降解的不足，被证明可有效用于人参食品的植物来源认证。此外，该测定可以检测到 0.1% 的西洋参故意掺假到西洋参中，低至 0.001 ng 的基因组 DNA，反之亦然。该研究为人参食品的植物来源鉴定提供了一种准确可靠的DNA方法，该方法可用于其他草药制剂的来源鉴定。