Abstract: A method for analyzing benzopyrene (BaP) in cigarette mainstream smoke by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was developed. The BaP in total particulate matter(TPM) was extracted with ethyl alcohol-ether, purified and enriched by alumina column chromatography, and analyzed by HPLC under the excitation wavelength of 286nm and emission wavelength of 430nm. The separate column was ODS-C₁₈, and the mobile phase was a mixture of 90% CH₃OH and 10% H₂O with a flow rate of 1mL/min. The recovery of BaP was 91.2% or more and the RSD of this method was below 5%. The contents of BaP in TPM of 10 commercial brand cigarettes with different tar level were determined. As for the tested cigarettes, the results showed that, 1) in same tar level, the content of BaP in the smoke of blended type cigarettes was lower than that of Virginia type by 8.29% to 19.59%; 2) although the total contents of BaP decreased significantly with the decrease of tar level of cigarette, the content of BaP in per milligram of tar was obviously increased in both blended and Virginia type cigarettes.