HPLC fingerprints of Aconitum flavum Hand.-Mazz.were established,and the contents of four alkaloids were determined to provide reference for the quality evaluation of A. flavum in different production areas.The analysis was performed on Ace excel C₁₈ PFP (4.6 mm×250 mm,5 μm) with acetonitrile (A) -0.1% phosphoric acid solution (add 2.5 mL triethylamine per 1 000 mL) (B) as mobile phase in a gradient elution mode.The flow rate was 1.0 mL/min,the column temperature was 35 ℃,the detection wavelength was set at 215 nm and the injection volume was 10 μL.There were 18 common peaks in the HPLC chromatogram of 15 batches of A. flavum,among which the percentages of 12-epinapelline,songrine,aconitine and 3-acetylaconitine were as follows:0.010 8-1.784 5,0.011 3-3.123 4,0.018 4-2.598 1 and 0.018 8-0.655 7 mg/g.According to the cluster analysis,the 15 batches of A. flavum were classified into four categories,principal component analysis (PCA) screened out five principal components,with the cumulative variance contribution rate of 82.549%,indicating that the principal components contained most information of original data.The similarity of 15 batches of A. flavum ranged from 0.769 to 0.952,indicating that there was difference between batches of A. flavum.This method can effectively evaluate the quality difference of A. flavum from different producing areas,and provide reference for the quality control of medicinal materials.