Abstract: A method for the determination of shikimic acid in Chinese star anise (Illicium verum Hook.f.) fruit by ion chromatography with suppressed conductivity detection was developed. The chromatographic separation was conducted on Metrohm A supp 4 (4 mm× 250 mm) anion exchange column, using 1.8 mmol/L Na2CO3 + 1.7 mmol/L NaHCO3 as a mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.8 mL/min. The total analysis time was 15 min. The linear range was between 1 mg/L and 100 mg/L and the correlation coefficient was 0.9993. A detection limit of 0.02～0.8 mg/L was achieved under optimized separation conditions. The RSD of peak area was 1.04% (n = 6), and the RSD of retention time was 0.47%. The average spike recoveries were between 97.3% and 98.9%. This method is fast, simple and reliable.