Objective: To realize the quantitative characterization of varied morphological structures in Saposhnikoviae Radix by programming

in order to provide technical support for the quantitative description of the microscopic identification characteristics of the Chinese herbal medicines.Method: According to the characteristics of the main structures in micrograph of the materials

digital image processing technology and MATLAB R2013a software programming were used for taking and encoding cross sectional micrographs of the materials; registration and stitching for each gray image were completed by template matching; edge detection was conducted for mosaic images using Canny operator; binarization and segmentation were made for microscopic characteristics to analyze the size

shape and number by basic morphological operation; distribution characterization was made for oil tubes and vessels using by hierarchical clustering; and discriminant analysis was performed for the data of the samples from four origins.Result: The main microscopic characteristics in the transverse section images of the materials

such as phellem

phloem

xylem

oil tubes and vessels

were respectively segmented into sub images; 20 parameters were extracted from the sub images

and 12 parameters of them were screened out by stepwise discriminant analysis. Through the discriminant analysis of the morphological parameters

the total accuracy of the sample discrimination was 91.4%.Conclusion: The method can accurately describe the fine differences of the transverse section tissues of the samples

which has certain reference significance for the microscopic identification of the medicinal materials from different origins.