Objective: A high performance liquid chromatography method was established for determination of four artificial sweeteners in syrups, i.e., acesulfame, saccharin sodium, aspartame and advantame.Methods:Acetonitrile was used as mobile phase A, and 0.02 mol/L ammonium dihydrogen phosphate (pH value adjusted to 5.5 by triethylamine) was used as mobile phase B. The gradient elution was conducted, with flow rate at 1.0 mL/min,and the column temperature was at 35 ℃; the detection wavelength was 214 nm, and sample size was 10 μL was loaded on the was Shiseido AQ-C18 column (4.6 mm×250 mm, 5 μm) A total of 45 batches of children's cough syrup samples from 21 manufacturers were determined by the established method.Results:The linear calibration curve of the four kinds of artificial sweeteners were obtained over the range of 2~100 mg/L. The average recoveries of acesulfame, saccharin sodium, aspartame and advantame were 98.65%, 104.09%, 100.96% and 102.30% respectively, with RSDs less than 2% (n=9). The actual sample test results showed that 3 batches of samples were found to be advename, and 2 batches of samples were found to be aspartame and advename.Conclusion:The established method is specific, simple, and reliable, and can be used to monitor the illegal addition of artificial sweeteners in syrups.