A method was developed for the determination of sulfur dioxide in chrysanthemum by ion chromatography(IC).The crushed sample was extracted with alkaline solution by accelerated solvent extraction(ASE),and purified with C18 solid phase extraction(SPE)cartridge.The analyte was separated with IonPac AS9-HC ion chromatographic column using carbonate as eluent and detected with conductivity detector.A good linear relationship(r2=0.999 7) was obtained in the range of 0.5-50 mg?L-1 with a limit of detection(LOD)of 0.05 mg?L-1 and a limit of quantitation(LOQ)of 0.17 mg?L-1.The method was validated at three different spiked levels,and the average recoveries were in the range of 82.9% - 92.6% with relative standard deviations(RSDs,n=6) less than 5.0%.The results indicated that the method had a high degree of automation and efficiency of extraction,and was suitable for rapid and accurate analysis of sulfur dioxide residue in chrysanthemum samples in batch.