Abstract
'Pae Jang (敗醬)' is one of Chinese crude drugs used mainly as a edema, abdominal pain and hemoptysis, etc. With regard to the botanical origin of 'Pae Jang', it has been considered to be Patrinia scabiosaefolia of Valerianaceae, but there has never been studied pharmacognostically. To clarify the botanical origin of the 'Pae Jang', we studied on the anatomical characteristics of the roots of three species growing in Korea. Through our studies, the botanical origin of 'Pae Jang' from Korea was proved to be the under ground portions of Patrinia scabiosaefolia and Patrinia villosa.