Abstract: We studied the relationships between the anatomical structure and the content of stilbene glucoside in the vegetative organs of Polygonum multiflorum Thunb. by histochemical localization, light microscope and quantitative analysis. The stilbene glucoside is accumulated in every vegetative organs including root tube, rhizome, stem and leaf of P.multiflorum and the content of stilbene glucoside is arranged in the order of rhizomes>root tube>leave>stem. These vegetative organs (except for stem) at different growth stages all have different content of stilbene glucoside. The accumulation of stilbene glucoside in the root tuber has a linear growth trend (except on April) and achieves a peak value at the end of October. The stilbene glucoside content in rhizome and leave varies in a consistent trend and both accumulates to a maximum value at the end of August. The content of stilbene glucoside in the stem is very low and has no obvious changes at all growth stages. The root tube belongs to the tertiary structure and the stilbene glucoside mainly accumulates in phelloderm secondary phloem, tertiary phloem and vascular ray in the root tube. For the rhizome, the stilbene glucoside accumulates in the phelloderm, the cortex and the secondary phloem and vascular ray, and that in leaf accumulates mainly in the palisade tissue.

Key words: Polygonum multiflorum, stilbene glucoside content, vegetative organs, anatomic structure, histochemical localization