An analytical method using reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) was developed for the separation and quantitative determination of main degradation products of lignin (4-hydroxybenzoic acid, vanillic acid, syringic acid, 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde, vanillin and syringaldehyde) during the steam exploded pretreatment for corn stovers. The separation was carried out on a C18 column with the mobile phase of acetonitrile-water (containing 1.5% acetic acid) at 30 degrees C at a flow rate of 0.8 mL/min and the detection wavelengths of 254 and 280 nm. Under the optimized conditions, the correlation coefficients of the 6 compounds were between 0.999 9 and 1.000 0. The recoveries of the 6 compounds were all above 96% and the relative standard deviations (n = 6) were less than 2.5%. This method is suitable for the determination of the main degradation products of lignin during the steam exploded pretreatment of lignocellulosics.