Atractylodes japonica koidz.(AJ) and Atractylodes macrocephala koidz.(AM) belong to Atractylodes genus (Asteraceae) and their rhizomes are used as traditional medicine ‘White Atractylodes Rhizome’ in Korea, China and Japan. ‘White Atractylodes Rhizome’ has anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive effects and atractylon is the major active ingredient. Previously, we developed 8 hybrid cultivars with disease resistance, high yielding ability and high active ingredients by interspecific hybridization between AJ and AM. In this study, agronomic characteristics of 8 hybrid cultivars were investigated in RDA experimental field. Among these cultivars, ‘Sang-won’ had the highest dry weight of rhizome (53.8g/plant), followed by ‘Da-chul’(50.0g/plant). Most of hybrid cultivars showed higher dry weight than those of AJ (7.2g/plant) and AM (36.4g/plant). In addition, active ingredients were investigated using HPLC. As a result, Atractylon content was the highest in ‘Dachul’ (19.090 mg/g) that was 4 times higher than AM (4.923 mg/g). Based on these results, hybrid cultivars showed higher agronomic performance than AJ and AM. Particularly, ‘Dachul’ could be the superior cultivar with high active ingredient as well as high yield ability.
