Abstract: For fast and accurately determining sulfate anion in tobacco, some improvements were made in sample preparation and measuring procedure:1) tobacco samples were ashed in a muffle furnace according to the programmed steps:180℃ (initial, retaining for 30min) →280℃ (30min) →380℃ (30min) →520℃ (end, 30min), increasing at rate 8℃/min, in order to avoid the experimental error due to splashes caused by sudden temperature increase;and 2) the sulfate anion in tobacco sample solution was reacted with barium chromate in weak acidic medium, the produced chromate anion was determined by UV-spectrometer at 420nm and the content of sulfate anion in tobacco was calculated with its absorption.The recovery of sulfate anion varied from 94% to 102%, its RSD was from 1.35% to 1.49%, and detection limit was 1.51×10^-4.There was no significant difference between the results obtained by this method and by a conventional weighting method, barium sulfate method.