Abstract: In order to reveal the accumulation of pharmaceutical constituents in different origins of Dendrobium huoshanense and its main counterfeit herb Dendrobium henanense, and to provide references for their standardized planting and cultivar identification,the contents of polysaccharides and ethanol-soluble extract in different ages of tissue-cultured and wild D.huoshanense as well as D.henanense were detected by anthrone-sulfuric acid colorimetric and hot-maceration method,respectively.The results showed that the accumulation of polysaccharides and ethanol-soluble extract in the 12 Dendrobium samples varied remarkably as their ages increased.It was better to harvest when they were cultivated for two years according to their polysaccharide contents.It was better to harvest when they were cultivated for three years according to their ethanol-soluble extract contents.It was more reasonable to harvest tissue-cultured D.huoshanense cultivated for two years while it was better to harvest wild D.huoshanense and D.henanense cultivated for 3 years according the total contents of polysaccharides and ethanolsoluble extract.

Key words: tissue-cultured Dendrobium huoshanense, wild Dendrobium huoshanense, Dendrobium henanense;polysaccharide;ethanol-soluble extract