• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.17-23
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• 2002

The seeds of Coix lachryma-jobi Linne var. mayuen Stapf. are used as dietary food for obesity and diabetes under the names of Yulmu in Korea and Yiyiren(薏苡仁) in China. It is one of the drugs promoting diuresis to eliminate the wetness-evil from the lower warmer in the traditional Korean medicine. According to ancient textbook of the traditional Korean medicine, it should be applied to patients with phlegm and heat, etc. The establishment of the method for the discrimination of Coisis Semen is very important for the quality control of drugs. Random amplified polymorphic DNA(RAPD) analysis and anatomical characteristics were used for the discrimination of Coix lachryma-jobi $Linn\acute{e}$ var. mayuen $S_{TAPF}$. and C. lachryma-jobi $Linn\acute{e}$. In the RAPD analysis with 20 primers, 8 primers gave informative and reproducible bands with the genomic DNA. From the cluster analysis, the genus Coix were divided into two groups at similarity coefficient of 0.863.