Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a group of ubiquitous hazardous pollutants derived from fossil fuel, various combustion sources and pyrolysis of a wide range of plastics. Because PAHs can be uptake into crop plants, the inhibitory effects on rice and soybean plants were examined in greenhouse and growth chamber experiment. Soil-applied PAHs (phenanthrene of 0, 10, 30, 100 ppm) slightly reduced the plant height and dry weight both in transplanted rice and soybean plant. The inhibitory effect on growth was greater in soybean than rice. Plant height of soybean plants treated by 100 ppm was 58.9 cm and this value was 87.2% of untreated plant. In rice plant, the plant height was less inhibited (96.0% of untreated plant) by 100 ppm at 80 days after treatment (DAT). However, leaf chlorophyll content and chlorophyll fluorescence were less inhibited by PAHs at late growth stage (after heading) although the photosynthesis-related parameters were slightly inhibited from 20 DAT to 70 DAT. In agar medium experiment with infant seedlings, inhibition of seedling length and fresh weight by phenanthrene at 100 ppm were greater as compared to the experiment with adult plant in pot. Seedling length and fresh weight were reduced by 54.2% and 33.3% for rice and 27.9% and 13.2% for soybean, respectively. The results reflected that PAHs were more inhibitory during juvenile stage than adult stage and more inhibitory to rice plant than soybean for juvenile stage. et al., 1996)되어 있다. PAHs는 호 기적 조건에서 생분해가 된다고 한다 (Freitag et al., 1985;Srivastava et al. 1990,;Wild et al., 1990). 한편 식물은 근 권의 작용 등으로 인하여 PAHs의 분해가 촉진되는 경우가 있어 PAHs와 식물 생육 간에 밀접한 관계가 있는 것으로 ISSN 0252-9777(Print) ISSN 2287-8432(Online)