The flowers of Carthamus tinctorius L.(Compositae family) have effect on activating blood to promote menstruation,promoting blood circulation to remove blood stasis etc. In order to study the spectrum-effect relationship of antidiabtic extract from the flowers of C. tinctorius,anti-diabetic effect was identified in vitro,HPLC was used to establish fingerprints of extracts of the flowers of C. tinctorius,7 characteristic compounds were identified by chemical reference substances and the PTP1B was used as a marker to perform spectrum-effect relationship analysis.GAR and PLS analysis shown 7 peaks have synergistic effect on PTP1B inhibition.Among them,hydroxysafflor yellow A(HSYA,peak 6) and 6-hydroxykaempferol-3,6-di-D-glucose-7-O-glucoside(peak 3) are the most contributory components.Quantitative analyses shown the content of HSYA and kaempferide in the flowers of C. tinctorius come from different area in Xinjiang were between 1.67%-1.94% and 0.09%-0.12% respectively.All these work provide support for research and development of the flowers of C. tinctorius.