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White cinquefoil (Potentilla alba L.) is a valuable medicinal raw material. It is a perennial herbaceous plant that grows 8-25 cm in height and has a thick, long (up to 50 cm or more), low-branched, black-brown rhizome, which is light on the cut. It has shortened perennial vegetative and annual generative shoots that form a root rosette. As a result of the research, microdiagnostic signs of white cinquefoil raw materials were established: a crystal-bearing lining with calcium oxalate druses, the stomata of the anamocyte type, hairs of three types; a rounded petiole with a beam type structure; numerous calcium oxalate druses in phloem cells and core rays. Merchandising indicators of herb quality and underground organs were determined: humidity – 12.5 and 5.8%, total ash – 8.4 and 3.7%, insoluble ash in 10% solution of HCL – 4.1 and 0.5%, extractive substances – 43.7 and 34.2%, respectively. The presence of flavonoids, tannins, coumarins, saponins and essential oil in the raw material was proved by qualitative tests, thin-layer chromatography and HPLC. The quantitative content of the main groups of biologically active substances in the herb and underground organs of white cinquefoil was found: by permanganometry – flavonoids 2.44±0.08 and 0.09 ± 0.01%, tannins 5.18± 0.24 and 26.63± 0.96%; by complexometric titration method – 3.57±0.28 and 16.18±0.14%, saponins 0.011±0.002 and 0.038±0.004%, essential oil 0.057% in the herb, respectively. In chemical terms, the plant is poorly studied. Of particular interest is the study of such BAS groups as polyphenol compounds and saponins. Data on the quantitative composition of tannins, flavonoids and saponins differ greatly from different authors or are not available at all. In traditional medicine, the raw materials of the plant are widely used for the treatment of various diseases. Of special interest is the use of white cinquefoil to correct the hormonal state of the thyroid gland. White cinquefoil is quite widespread on the territory of the central chernozem region of Russia, but measures to preserve its raw materials and introduce the plant into culture are highly required.