Abstract: OBJECTIVE To study the quality of safflower yellow preliminarily which was medicine and food of natural pigments. METHODS The content of the total safflower yellow and the hydroxy safflower yellow A in the safflower yellow were determined by UV and HPLC. RESULTS The total content of the homemade safflower yellow and the safflower yellow (E=150) sold in the market were more than 99%. The content of hydroxyl safflower yellow A extracted from homemade safflower yellow was much higher, reached 20.21%, 2-3 times of the sold. CONCLUSION The content of safflower yellow increases remarkably with increase of the colourity, and the content of hydroxy safflower yellow A varies in different samples of safflower yellow. The research sets up a base for the analysis and the control of safflower yellow quality.