An inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry(ICP-MS) was applied to the detection of concentrations of 50 mineral elements in American ginseng originated from Shandong(China),Jilin(China),USA and Canada.The mineral element compositions in American ginseng from different places were compared to decide the reduction factors,and then the mineral element fingerprints were constructed by transferring element compositions into graphs.In addition,the standard element fingerprints were established by using the average concentrations of each mineral element in American ginseng from Shandong(China),Jilin(China),USA and Canada,respectively.The similarity degrees between the mineral element fingerprints and the standard element fingerprints of the American ginseng samples from different regions were calculated with SPSS 200 Software.The thresholds of the similarity degrees were 093,091,098 and 093 for American ginseng from Shandong(China),Jilin(China),USA and Canada,respectively.To identify the geographical origin of an unknown American ginseng,it need calculate the similarity degree between the mineral element fingerprint of the unknown American ginseng and the standard element fingerprints,if the similarity degree is higher than the threshold of the similarity degree of American ginseng of a certain geographical origin,the unknown American ginseng belongs to the origin.20 batches of unknown American ginseng were used to verify this method with an accuracy of 85%.Furtherfore,the different ages and parts of American ginseng had no impact on the presented method.