Enzymatic fingerprints of polysaccharides of Dendrobium officinale and their application in identification of Dendrobium species

Enzymatic fingerprinting of polysaccharides from Dendrobium officinale was studied and applied to authenticate Dendrobium species. Results showed that Dendrobium officinale species from Anhui province, Fujian province, Yunnan province, Guangdong province and Guangxi province of China, could be identified by polysaccharide analysis using carbohydrate gel electrophoresis (PACE). However, the fingerprints of Dendrobium officinale from Jiangxi province, Hu'nan province and Wenzhou, Yandangshan and Fuyang in Zhejiang province were very similar. As far as the fingerprints of different Dendrobium species were concerned, the differences between Dendrobium officinale, Dendrobium huoshanense, Dendrobium moniliforme, Dendrobium devonianum, Dendrobium aphyllum, Dendrobium wilsonii and Dendrobium crystallinum were obvious. Moreover, the genetic relationships between different samples were analyzed by using principal component analysis and unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean cluster analysis. Results suggested that polysaccharide fingerprint analysis by PACE has the potential to become a valuable new method for the identification and control of quality of herbal medicines in future.