A comparative study of the differences between rubbed and unrubbed Hedysari Radix samples was carried out by character description,scanning electron microscope,icroscopic identification and HPLC.The results showed that there were some differences between rubbed and unrubbed Hedysari Radix samples in terms of characteristics (shapes,cortex characteristics,beany flavor),primary textures and lenticels,starch grains,cork cells,fingerprint similarity and formononetin content,but less differences or no differences were observed in secondary textures,ducts,thin-walled cells,crystals (square crystals) and crystal sheath fibres.The fingerprint similarities were higher in the rubbed samples than in the unrubbed ones,and there was a significant difference between the two in terms of formononetin content,with the wild rubbed samples having 2.58 times higher than the wild unrubbed ones,and the cultivated rubbed samples having 1.87 times higher than the cultivated unrubbed ones.It can provide a reference for the research of rubbing mechanism and rubbing processing of other medicinal herbs.