Species identification of Panax ginseng throughout the entire industrial chain: From the ginseng field to highly processed products

Abstract

Panax ginseng has been highly treasured in Asian countries due to its long history, more types of pharmaceutically active ginsenosides, and prominent pharmacological effects. However, the potential adulteration of P. ginseng with P. quinquefolius or P. notoginseng poses serious health risks to consumers and disrupts market stability within the ginseng industry. To address this challenge, a simple real-time PCR assay for rapid screening of field P. ginseng and a reliable multiplex PCR method for species identification of highly processed ginseng products were respectively established, based on the InDel markers derived from nuclear and mitochondrial intron sequences. The real-time PCR assay, coupled with a simple NaOH-Tris DNA extraction method, facilitates high-throughput screening of field ginseng samples based on the Tm values of PCR products with a single pair of primers. The multiplex PCR assay, targeting the mitochondrial nad1 and nad5 InDel markers, could detect exogenous adulteration of P. quinquefolius or P. notoginseng at a remarkable detection limit of 0.001 ng and successfully identified the original species in various forms of highly processed ginseng products. The results indicate that mitochondrial InDel markers resist DNA degradation better than nuclear ones, making them more suitable for species identification in highly processed ginseng products that contain trace amounts of degraded DNA. The present study provides robust InDel marker-based methods for species identification across the entire ginseng industrial chain, from the ginseng field to final processed products, thereby serving as reliable tools for ensuring the authenticity of P. ginseng products.