Dangshen, a popularly used Chinese traditional drug was first recorded in Wu’s (吳儀洛) medicinal book {{Ben-Cao-Zong-Sin (本草從新){{ of Ching Dynasty. Roots of Danshen looks like ginseng. Dangshen has a sweet taste and acts on the spleen and lung channels. Over three hundred years, dried roots of Dangshen have been used in enhancing vital energy, blood circulation, lowering the blood pressure, and for treatment of watery stool with poor appetite, neurosis, hematopoietic disease, poor gastrointestinal function, gastric ulcer and nephritis etc. We collected samples of Danshen from different sources and studied anatomy of roots. The materials were classified into following four species. 1. Codonopsis pilosula (FRANCH.) NANNF. 2. C. pilosula NANNF. var. modesta (NANNF.) L.T. SHEN 3. C. tangshen OLIV. 4. C. javanica (BLUNE) MIQ. subsp. japonica Morphological and histological characters including epidermis, parenchyma, vascular bundle, fiber bundle, particle size of crystals of above four species of Dangshen were studied. On comparative study of these features, significant variations in anatomical features among these four species were observed.
