Objective: To study the correlation between the color of Celosiae Cristatae Flos powder and its chemical components. Method: Colorimeter was used to determined L*

a* and b* values of Celosiae Cristatae Flos powder

RP-HPLC was used to determine the content of the four active components

spectrophotometer was adopted to determined total flavonoids in Celosiae Cristatae Flos (based on rutin)

and SPSS 19.0 software was used to analyze the correlation between color values and content of active component in this study. Result: In Celosiae Cristatae Flos

L* and luteolin

quercetin

kaempferol

isorhamnetin were significantly negatively correlated; a* and luteolin

quercetin

kaempferol were significantly positively correlated; and b* and luteolin

quercetin

kaempferol were significantly negatively correlated. a*

b* and isorhamnetin were uncorrelated

and L*

a*

b* and total flavonoids (based on rutin) were significantly negatively correlated. Conclusion: There was a significant correlation between the color values and the content of the four effective components. It is energy-saving and convenient to assess the quality control of Celosiae Cristatae Flos by determining the color of powder. Although the new method can be applied to assess the quality of Celosiae Cristatae Flos and provide reference

some problems still shall be further studied.