It has been found out that the normal growth of Coptis chinensis is heavily affected and both NRA in leaves and berberine contents in rhizome are very low when seedlings are short of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. The plants grow especially worse and most of them soon die off when nitrogen is short. The new leaves are smaller both in number and size when phosphorus and potassium are short. Few roots can grow up and easily get old in the solution short of potassium.