Abstract: In order to promote the retention and drainage properties of tobacco pulp during reconstituted tobacco base sheet making, different fixing agents, cationic flocculants and anionic auxiliaries were successively added into tobacco pulp to form a multiple retention system. The application efficiency of the multiple retention system was studied via analyzing Zeta-potential, drainage time, white water turbidity, and white water cationic demand of tobacco pulp containing different additives. The results showed that: 1) In the multiple retention system, cationic chitosan with a high cationic charge density could neutralize anionic colloid, cationic guar gum with a high molecular weight could improve flocculation effect. In addition, bentonite with anionic charge could effectively enhance the adsorption effect between the fiber floccules adsorbed cationic guar gum. 2) When cationic chitosan, cationic guar gum and bentonite were successively added into tobacco pulp at the rate of 0.1%, 0.1% and 0.5% respectively, the white water turbidity of tobacco pulp were 164.8 NTU with the drainage time (250 g) of 1.4 s, which was significantly better than a single or dual retention system consisting of chitosan, guar gum or bentonite. 3) The stability of tobacco pulp with the multiple retention system was better in different wet-end environments.