Abstract: In order to improve the quality and usability of burley tobacco, the routine chemical components, including total sugar, total nitrogen, chlorine, total volatile bases, and total alkaloid, in burley tobacco grown in Hefeng county of Hubei province were determined from topping to the end of curing with standard methods.The results showed that:1) the content of total sugar in the burley tobacco was sharply reduced from topping to the early stage of curing, and then remained the same level;2) total nitrogen in upper, middle and lower stalk position leaves changed a little except for significant reduction in upper leaf from topping to harvesting;3) though it was obviously increased at large, the content of chlorine in upper, middle and lower position leaves were relatively low;4) the total volatile bases in upper and middle leaf increased dramatically from topping to the first two weeks of curing, and then increased slightly, the total volatile bases in lower leaf changed a little, which were obviously lower than those in upper and middle leaves except for the first ten days after topping;and 5) the total alkaloid in upper, middle and low er leaves significantly increased from topping to harvesting, and then decreased slowly during curing.