Inorganic elements are essential substances in the growth process of plants in nature and are also the basic components of Chinese medicinal materials. Their composition and content determine the efficacy and properties of Chinese medicine and are an indispensable parameter in the quality control and evaluation of Chinese medicine. The rhizosphere is the node of material and energy exchange between plants and soil. The nutrient elements of the rhizosphere soil are closely related to the intrinsic quality of Chinese medicinal materials. The changes in the composition of medicinal materials and the law of action due to differences in soil, production areas and other ecological factors are issues worthy of study. As an important element determination method, atomic absorption spectrophotometry plays an important role in analysing Chinese herbal medicines and finished medicines. The study used samples of Salvia miltiorrhiza and rhizosphere soil from 9 main producing areas in 5 provinces were used. The atomic absorption spectrophotometry was used to detect the contents of eight inorganic elements of Na, Mg, K, Ca, Mn, Fe, Cu and Zn in the samples. Use cluster analysis, principal component analysis, orthogonal partial least square discriminant analysis and other chemical pattern recognition methods to discuss and summarize. The results show that the established atomic absorption spectrophotometric method has a good linear relationship and has high accuracy and precision. The content of Mn in the Salvia miltiorrhiza from the Shan-dong area is higher than that in other producing areas. Salvia miltiorrhiza from the Si-chuan area have higher Fe and K elements, while the content of Ca in the rhizosphere soil of Salvia miltiorrhiza from Shan-xi province is slightly higher. Cluster analysis showed that there were significant differences between different origins of Salvia miltiorrhiza. The K, Na, Mn and Zn elements in the in root soil showed correlations with several elements in the herbs. The results of the principal component analysis showed that the elements in the soil influenced the variation of the constituent elements of the herbs. If these eight elements were used as evaluation indexes, the quality of Salvia miltiorrhiza in the Shan-dong area would be better. The results of partial least squares discriminant analysis results revealed that four elements, Na, K, Fe and Mg, might be the main influencing factors for the difference in quality of Salvia miltiorrhiza from different production areas. In this study, methods and evaluation systems for the accurate and efficient analysis of inorganic element content in Salvia miltiorrhiza from different producing areas and rhizosphere soil and the evaluation system were to explore the relationship between the quality of authentic medicinal materials and the growth environment. It provides a scientific basis for the quality control and standard establishment of Salvia miltiorrhiza and a reference for other studies.