Research on the dentification of Panax ginseng and Panax quinquefolium using catalysed hairpin assembly technology

Panax ginseng and Panax quinquefolium are traditional Chinese herb medicines and similar in morphology and some chemical components but differ in drug properties, so they cannot be mixed. However, the processed products of them are often sold in the form of slices, powder, and capsules, which are difficult to identify by traditional morphological methods. Furthermore, an accurate evaluation of P. ginseng, P. quinquefolium and the processed products have not been conducted.

This study aimed to establish a catalysed hairpin assembly (CHA) identification method for authenticating products made from P. ginseng and P. quinquefolium based on single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) differences.

By analysing the differences of SNP in internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) in P. ginseng and P. quinquefolium to design CHA-specific hairpins. Establish a sensitive and efficient CHA method that can identify P. ginseng and P. quinquefolium, use the sequencing technology to verify the accuracy of this method in identifying Panax products, and compare this method with high-resolution melting (HRM).

The reaction conditions of CHA were as follows: the ratio of forward and reverse primers, 20:1; hairpin concentration, 5 ng/μL. Compared with capillary electrophoresis, this method had good specificity and the limit of detection was 0.5 ng/μL. The result of Panax product identification with CHA method were coincidence with that of the sequencing method; the positive rate of CHA reaction was 100%.

This research presents an effective identification method for authenticating P. ginseng and P. quinquefolium products, which is helpful to improve the quality of Panax products.