The invention discloses an identification method for the effective components in a 
ginkgo leaf preparation. The identification method comprises: (1) preparing a testing product: taking a proper amount of a 
ginkgo leaf preparation to be detected, adding n-
butanol, extracting, filtering, evaporating the filtrate, and adding 
ethanol to the residue to dissolve so as to be adopted as the testing product solution; (2) preparing a reference substance solution: taking a proper amount of a 
ginkgo leaf 
reference preparation, and preparing the reference substance solution according to the step (1); and (3) carrying out 
thin layer chromatography: respectively sucking 1-10 [mu]lt of the testing product solution and the reference substance solution, respectively spotting on the same 
silica gel G plate, developing with an 
ethyl acetate, 
isopropyl alcohol, 
methanol and water mixture, taking out the thin plate, carrying out 
air drying, spraying a 1-5% aluminum 
chloride ethanol solution, placing in a 365 nm 
ultraviolet light lamp, viewing the 
fluorescence, and observing the spot. According to the present invention, with the identification method, the good separation effects of various effective components are good, the spots are clear, the Rf value is moderate, various effective components can be accurately identified, and the 
qualitative analysis and 
quality control are easily achieved.