A reserved-phase HPLC method was developed for the determination of barbaloin in Aloe vera L. var. chinensis (Haw.) Berger and Aloe barbadensis Miller, and whether there was a close relationship between the contents of barbaloin and their environments in which they were growing was decided. A Hypersil ODS column (4.6 mm×200 mm, 5 μm)was used with a mobile phase of methanol-water (40:60, containing 0.1% acetic acid), the flow rate being 1.0 mL·min -1, detection wavelength at 359 nm, and the column temperature being 30℃. The linear range of barbaloin was between 0.0726 and 0.726 μg with a correlation coefficient of 0.9998 and the regression equation being Y=1.9202×10 6X-1801.9. Barbaloin was stable in methanol in 48 h and the instrument precision was 1.2% while the method precision was 4.9%. The contents of barbaloin of 12 samples ranged from 6.160 to 319.1 μg·g -1. The method developed was fast and simple with good reproducibility. There was high correlation between the contents of barbaloin and their growing environments.
