Identification of seeds of Cuscuta australis R. Br. and C. chinensis Lam. was carried out by TLC and HPLC. Polyamide membrane was used as stationary phase, MeOH-HOAc-H2O and CHCl3-MeOH-HOAc were used as mobile phase for TLC. For HPLC, Hypersil-ODS column was used; the mobile phase was MeOH-0.025 M H3PO4; the flow rate was 1.0 ml.min-1; detection wavelength was 360 nm; and column temperature was 40 degrees C. Both methods represented significant identification characteristics, and were simple, accurate and reproducible.