This study was performed to investigate the growth characteristics and inorganic components of Codonopsis lanceolata regarding regional differences. The plant height of Japanese Codonopsis lanceolata was 373.6 cm, so it’s revealed that it has more vigorous growth than Korean won. The flowering time of Korean Codonopsis lanceolata was 2 weeks faster than Japanese one. Total fresh weight of root was 41.0 g and 39.0 g for Korean and Japanese respectively, thus, no significance difference was found. However, regarding fresh weight, Korean one had a more fresh weight (35.4 g) of main root parts, but Japanese one had a more fresh weight (9.6 g) of the lateral root part. Each inorganic component was found more in the aboveground parts, regardless of the region and the content of K was the largest. Regarding the content of macroelements for each part of Codonopsis lanceolata, the content of Na, Mg, P, S, and Ca in Korean Codonopsis lanceolata was found the highest on the leaf, followed by stem and root. In the case of Japanese Codonopsis lanceolata, same result was found on the content of Mg and Ca, however, the highest content of Na and P was found in the stem.

This study was conducted to compare the growth, inorganic components, and proximate components of Codonopsis lanceolata grown in 10 regions of Korea for selecting superior species and breeding by crossing. Among the all tested lines, the shortest plant height (217.12 cm) was observed from the Ulleungdo region line (No. 4) while the longest (273.9 cm) was observed from Hwasun region line (No. 9). In addition, the lines of central and northern region (No. 1~No. 7) tend to have shorter plant height than those of southern region (No. 8~No. 9) except Jejudo region line (No. 10). Flowering tends to be late towards southern region, and lines in central and northern regions were started flowering about 2 weeks earlier than those in southern regions. However, the heaviest root weight was 13.1 g, found in only Jejudo line (No. 10) whereas there was no significant difference found in the other regions which have a range of 8.3~11.0 g. The inorganic components were varied in each line, however, proportion of macroelements, such as K, Ca, and P, was the largest for every line. Especially for Heongseong region line (No. 2), had larger proportion of macroelements than the others. There was a difference of proximate compositions of Codonopsis lanceolata, except the moisture content, among all regions, however, it was generally shown that the content of crude protein (1.31~3.76%) and crude fiber (2.18~3.12%) was the highest.