Analyses of randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) were performed in an effort to distinguish between two different origins of Pinellia ternata. To determine whether the origin of Pinellia ternata is in China or Korea. RAPD analysis was carried out using ten 20-mer random primers. Although the coefficients of similarity between the DNA of Chinese and Korean accessions of Pinellia ternata were high, distinguishable band patterns were observed in the reaction performed using primer numbers 3, 6 and 10. Primer 3 produced one (410 bp) and primer 6 produced four (410 bp, 350 bp, 300 bp, 250 bp) Chinese Pinellia-specific fragments. Primer 10 produced one (900 bp) Korean Pinellia rhizome-specific fragment. In addition, using PCR-RFLP analysis, different fingerprints were obtained from Korean and Chinese Pinellia ternata respectively. These results suggest that the analyses with RAPD and PCR-RFLP can be used to authenticate the relevant Chinese and Korean herbal medicines.