Rehmannia glutinosa shows a high level of resistance to the non-selective herbicide paraquat. To characterize the antioxidant enzyme system of R. glutinosa, we comparatively examined the responses of antioxidant enzymes to UV, wounding and a general elicitor yeast extract in R. glutinosa and soybean. The levels of enzyme activities of the two plant species were drastically different between those per fresh weight (general activity) and per protein (specific activity) bases. The general activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POX), catalase (CAT), and glutathione reductase (GR) were lower, but that of ascorbate peroxidase (APX) was higher in R. glutinosa than in soybean. The specific activities of the enzymes, however, were about two- to seven-fold higher in R. glutinosa than in soybean, except that of CAT, which was about 12-fold higher in soybean. The general and specific enzyme activities of R. glutinosa relative to those of soybean showed a consistent increase in responses to the stresses only in SOD. The specific activities of SOD and APX were higher in R. glutinosa in all stress treatments. The results might suggest a relatively higher contribution of SOD and APX to the stress tolerance.