Abstract: In order to rapidly determine the phenolic antioxidants in hotmelt adhesives for cigarettes, an ultra-high performance liquid chromatography(UPLC)method using tetrahydrofuran as the extracting solvent and methanol as the precipitating solvent was developed. Eight antioxidants, including phenol, tertiary butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), butyl hydroxyanisd (BHA), 2, 4-di-tert-butylphenol, 2, 6-di-tert-butylphenol, butylatedhydroxytoluene (BHT), Irganox 1010 and Irganox 1076 in hotmelt adhesives for cigarettes were targeted with the method. Ten hotmelt adhesive samples were tested with the developed method. The results showed that: 1) The recoveries of the method ranged from 90.9% to 103.4% with the repeatability relative standard deviation(RSD)not higher than 6.7%, and the limit of detection from 0.008 to 0.028 μg·mL^-1. 2)The antioxidants in the hotmelt adhesive for cigarette samples were primarily BHT and Irganox 1010. Antioxidants in common foods and food contact materials or contaminants, such as phenol, TBHQ, BHA and Irganox 1076, were not detected. This method is simple, rapid, accurate and suitable for determining antioxidants in hotmelt adhesives for cigarettes.