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.