Human α-amylase is mainly produced in the salivary gland and the pancreas. Salivary and pancreatic amylases are encoded by different, but closely related genes termed AMY1 and AMY2, respectively, and they are expressed in a tissue-specific fashion. In the present study, DNA polymorphism (RFLP; restriction fragment length polymorphism) on salivary α-amylase gene was investigated to examine the genetic structure of α-amylase in Korean population. After double digestion with restriction endonucleases PstI and BamHI, a polymorphism with two alleles, tentatively called 5.7 kb and 6.5 kb fragment alleles, was observed. The frequencies of these alleles in the population were 0.595 and 0.405, respectively.