Discrimination of geographical origin and cultivation years of Ginseng by near Infrared reflectance spectroscopy

The objectives of this study are to discriminate the geographical origin and cultivation years of ginseng based on the near-infrared(NIR) reflectance spectroscopic analysis. Korea and China ginseng samples were prepared for discrimination of geographical origin. 4, 5 and 6 years-old ginseng samples from Korea were prepared for discrimination of cultivation years. Used spectrometer were InfraAlyzer 500, InfraAlyzer 400 and Fiber optic. Sample type of ginseng was 3, whole ginseng radix, slide section and powder type. The accuracy was affected by sample types and instruments. The accuracy for discrimination geographical origin was 97% in calibration model using IA 500 and ginseng powder. For discrimination of cultivation years, the model with slide selection using IA500 were relative accurate. The accuracy was 96.7% for 4-year, 91.3% for 5-year and 89.3% for 6-year old ginseng. The study shows that NIR spectroscopic analysis can be used to discriminate the geographical origin and cultivation years of ginseng with acceptable accuracy.