Abstract:This study aims to explore the phenols in Xinyanghong black tea and their impact on antioxidant ca－pacity of the tea. To be specific，high performance liquid chromatography （HPLC）was developed to determinephenols （8 catechins，6 flavonoids，2 phenolic acids，and hydrolysable tannins）and 3 purine alkaloids in 9Xinyanghong black tea samples. In addition，the in vitro antioxidant activities of the samples were determinedwith 5 methods. Results showed that except for gallocatechin （GC），other phenols and 3 purine alkaloids weredetected in all or some of Xinyanghong black tea samples. One-way analysis of variance demonstrated signifi－cant difference（P＜0.001）in tea polyphenols，3 tea pigments（theaflavins，thearubigins，and theabrownins），7 cat－echins，gallic acid，3 flavonoids （taxifolin，quercetin，and kaempferol），theobromine，and hydrolysable tannins，as well as the significant difference（P＜0.01）in ferric reducing antioxidant power（FRAP），DPPH-scavenging ac－tivity，and superoxide anion scavenging ability（SSA）among some of the 9 tea samples. Epicatechin gallate was themain catechin in teas，followed by epigallocatechin gallate，epicatechin and epigallocatechin. Rutin，taxifolinand luteolin were main flavonoids with the content of 1.39 mg/g-1.79 mg/g，0.59 mg/g-0.74 mg/g and 0.53 mg/g-0.75 mg/g，respectively. Bivariate correlation analysis showed significant（P＜0.05）or highly significant（P＜0.01）positive correlation of phenols including catechins and gallic acid，and theaflavins with FRAP，DPPH-scavenging activity and ABTS+-scavenging activity，which could improve the in vitro antioxidant activity of black tea.