Abstract: A high performance liquid chromatography-UV detector (HPLC-UV) method was established for simultaneously determining six colorants (lemon yellow, allure red, basic orange, erythrosine, alkaline yellow O and curcumin) in wrapping materials of cigarettes. The samples were extracted with the mixed solution of methanol, 10% ammonia and water (1:1:8, V/V)under oscillation. After being filtered with 0.45 μm membrane, the extract was separated by Zorbax SB-C₁₈ column (250 mm× 4.6 mm, 5 μm) with 0.02 mol/L ammonium acetate and acetonitrile as the mobile phases of gradient elution and using UV multi-wavelength for detection. The results showed that: 1) The six analytes were well separated within 25 minutes, with good linear relations in the range of 0.1-5.0 μg/mL (R²=0.9965-0.9999). The limits of detection were from 0.28 to 0.86 mg/kg, and the recoveries ranged from 78.1% to 102.5% with the relative standard deviations below 8%. 2) For all of the ten tested samples, including carton blanks and tipping paper, the amounts of the six colorants were below the allowed maximum limit in food. This method is simple, accurate, of good reproducibility and suitable for determining the residues of the six colorants in cigarette wrapping material.