Abstract: In order to accurately determine the major phenolic compounds(hydroquinol, resorcinol, catechol, phenol, p-cresol, m-cresol, o-cresol) retained by cigarette filters, a rapid and accurate high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC) method was developed by investigating sample pretreatment conditions, such as filter-slitting means, extraction solvent, extraction method, and extraction time. A comparative experiment on seven filter cigarette samples was performed with the developed method among six laboratories. The results showed that: 1) By slitting the filter longitudinally from the tobacco end to the mouth end, then subjecting it to ultrasonic extraction with 50 m L solution(1% acetic acid, 79% methanol and20% water, V/V) for 30 minutes at room temperature, the said phenolic compounds retained in the filter could be completely extracted. 2) Within the concentration of 0.04-4.00 μg/m L, the said phenolic compounds exhibited good linear relations with R² > 0.999, the recoveries ranged from 93.35% to 104.50% with relative standard deviations(RSDs) < 7.3%. 3) The RSD of the six laboratories in resorcinol and phenol determination was less than 15%, in the other five phenolic compounds determination was less than 10%. This method is suitable for determining the said phenolic compounds in mainstream cigarette smoke retained by cigarette filter.