OBJECTIVE To develop an assay for the determination of berberine hydrochloride in berberine hydrochloride tablets,and to compare the results measured by colormetric method with the assay described in Chinese Pharmacopoeia 1995 for assessing the correlation of the two methods.METHODS Potassium dichromate colormetric method was selected to determine the content, and the 0.2 mg·mL^-1Potassium dichromate was used as the reference solution. The absorbency was measured at 421 nm.RESULTS The calibration curve for berberine hydrochloride was linear within the concentration range of 4.0～28.0μg·mL^-1(r=0.9999).The average recovery was 100.05%(n=5),and the RSD was 0.43%.The analytical results for berberine hydrochloride between the two methods was found to be correlated. CONCLUSION The method was proved to be simple, precise and reproduciable. It can be used for the quantitative determination of berberine hydrochloride. It is especially practicable for rapid analysis in production.