Abstract: OBJECTIVE To investigate the differences of the effective components contents and metallic elements between manual cultivation Cistanch deserticola parasitized by Haloxylon ammodendron and wild Cistanch deserticola. METHODS HPLC and atomic absorption spectrometry with air-acetylene flame methods were used to determine the content of effective components and metallic elements, and these results were analyzed by SPSS statistical analysis software. RESULTS The content of acteoside (2.58±0.45)% in wild samples was significantly higher than that in manual cultivated samples (1.13±0.37)% (P<0.05), the content of echinacoside had no significant difference between manual cultivation and wild samples. Moreover, the content of metallic elements Na, K, Ca in the wild samples were significantly higher than those in the cultivated samples (P<0.05). CONCLUSION Wild and manual cultivated samples have differences in the contents of components.