Abstract: A method of HPLC for the determination of preservatives,including benzoic acid,sorbic acid and ethyl-p-hydroxybenzoate,in additive liquor for tobacco was proposed.The sample was dissolved with 10 g·L-1 HOAc solution,and purified by solid phase extraction with Waters Sep-Pak-C18 column.Three kinds of preservatives were separated on the ZORBAX Stable Bound chromatographic column with a mixture of 2.0 g·L-1 phosphoric acid-acetonitrile(20+80) as mobile phase,and determined with the photodiode array detector at 250 nm.Baseline separation of benzoic acid,sorbic acid and ethyl-p-hydroxybenzoate was attained within 2.5 min.Values of recovery and RSD′s (n=7) were in the ranges of 88.0%-101.0% and 3.1%-3.6% respectively.