OBJECTIVETo study the identification characters of Abutilon indicum and its confused herb A. theophrasti and establish an identification method.

METHODLMVP (leaf morphological-venation pattern for identification Chinese herbs), and QAERM (quantitatively analyze and evaluate reliability for the method of identification Chinese herbs) were applied for the study.

RESULTThe main differences of the leaf of Abutilon indicum: leaf margin cilia short and not clear (75-200 microm), petiole top with long straight hairs (up to 1.0-1.2 cm), when the tertiary veins and intersecondary veins issue from the lower part of midrib, their angles of divergence usually were wide acute (65 degrees-80 degrees) and a few was about right angle (80 degrees-100 degrees). The main differences of the leaf of A. theophrasti: leaf margin cilia long and clear (200-500 microm), petiole top with short straight hairs (most 0.1-0.5 mm), when the tertiary veins and intersecondary veins issue from the lower part of midrib, their angles of divergence usually were about right angle (80 degrees-100 degrees) and a few was wide acute (65 degrees-80 degrees). With the mentioned three groups of key differences, the both plants could be successfully identified from each other. The accuracy of identification results (AC) was from 97.5% to 99.6%, the repeatability of identification results: agreement rate for observation (ARO) was 97.1% and Kappa value was 0.94.

CONCLUSIONThe established method is simple, rapid, economic and reliable.