The synthetic pigments in black tea and green tea sunflower seeds were determined by HPLC. Sample solution was absorbed by polyamide, then desorbed by ammonia-ethanol-water, after neutralization concentrated by water bath, quantified and filtered. The gradient elution was performed with an Agilent C18 column, 0.02 mol/L ammonium acetate-methanol as mobile phase, at the flow rate of 1.0 mL/min, column temperature of 35 ℃, detection wavelength of 254 nm, and injection volume of 10 μL. Seven kinds of pigments (lemon yellow, sunset yellow, amaranth red, rouge red, bright blue, fancy red, erythrosine) can be separated by chromatographic resolution. The linear ranges of them were all between 10.0 μg/mL and 50.0 μg/mL, and the average recovery rate (n=9) of sunflower seeds shell 88.8%~97.3%, kernel of sunflower seeds 83.0%~92.6%. The method is accurate and credibility, which can be applied to detect synthetic pigment in sunflower seeds.