Abstract: A high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method was developed for the determination of four acetophenones, namely 4-hydroxyacetophenone (Ⅰ), 2,5-dihydroxyacetophenone (Ⅱ), baishouwubenzophenone (Ⅲ) and 2,4-dihydroxyacetophenone (Ⅳ), in Radix Cynanchi bungei. The HPLC with photodiode array (PDA) detection was carried out on a Symmetry-C18 (4.6 mm×250 mm, 5 μm) column with CH3OH-H2O (26∶74, v/v) as the mobile phase at the flow rate of 1.0 mL/min and 30 ℃. The compounds Ⅰ, Ⅲ, Ⅳ were monitored at 280 nm, and the compound Ⅱ was at 224 nm. Four acetophenones (Ⅰ-Ⅳ) had good linearities (r=0.9996-0.9999) at the ranges of 0.080-0.560 μg, 0.080-0.560 μg, 0.100-0.700 μg and 0.092-0.644 μg, respectively. The average recoveries were from 98.0% to 104.0% with relative standard deviations (RSD) ranging from 0.8% to 2.6%. The method is of quick, simple and accurate. The method can be used for the quality control of this product

Key words: acetophenones, photodiode array detection, Radix Cynanchi bungei , high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)