The dried stems of Dendrobium officinale Kimura et Migo are well-known as an expensive Chinese medicine under the name of Tiepi Shihu “鉄皮石斛”. But its authentication remains a challenge because many other Dendrobium species are often mistaken for Tiepi Shihu due to identical appearance. Conventional authentication method severely depends on experts’ experience and subjective judgment. Application of DNA bar-coding has been studied but this kind of method is very expensive and time-consuming, and therefore unpractical.

This invention introduces an efficient, low-cost and convenient method to identify some specific quality control (QC) markers for both qualitative and quantitative authentication of herbal material, particularly Dendrobium officinale. Furthermore, this invention could be further developed into QC kit for commercial application. Based on this invention, it could be widely applied for the authentication of Dendrobium officinale by pharmaceutical industries. It received allowance of a US patent. A China patent has been applied.