Abstract:Chicoric acid，chlorogenic acid，esculin，aesculetin，lactucin and lactucopicrin are six compounds with special biological activities in chicory，which are important indices of the health care function of chicory.High-performance liquid chromatography（HPLC）and ultra high-performance liquid chromatography（UPLC）were employed for the determination of the six components in chicory and its related products.The functional components in the samples were extracted by ultrasonic extraction with 70%methanol aqueous solution.The gradient elution was carried out with 0.1%phosphoric acid aqueous solution and acetonitrile as mobile phase.The SB-C18 column（4.6 mm×250 mm，5 μm）was used in HPLC，and C18 column with small packing particle size（2.1 mm×100 mm，1.5 μm）was used in UPLC.The flow rates were 1.0 mL/min and 0.4 mL/min，respectively.The detection wavelength of lactucin and lactucopicrin were 258 nm，and that of chicoric acid，chlorogenic acid，esculin and aesculetin were 330 nm.The proposed methods have been successfully validated[relative standard deviation（RSD）＜4%].The average recoveries ranged from 97.0%to 103.6%.The limits of detection（LODs）for the six components were from 0.49 mg/kg to 2.14 mg/kg in HPLC，and from 1.11 mg/kg to 5.24 mg/kg in UPLC.The limits of quantitation（LOQs）for the six components were from 1.65 mg/kg to 7.14 mg/kg in HPLC，and from 3.72 mg/kg to 17.50 mg/kg in UPLC.