A high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis system based on a water-acetonitrile gradient program was established for simultaneous quantification of shikimate-derived secondary metabolites in cultured cells of Lithospermum erythrorhizon. The cells cultured in pigment production medium (M-9) are capable of producing five highly hydrophilic compounds such as p-hydroxybenzoic acid-O-glucoside and lithospermic acid B, as well as eleven lipophilic compounds including echinofuran B and acetylshikonin. In addition to the wide polarities of those compounds, many of them are unstable under light, dryness, oxygen and heating. Thus, a new extraction procedure for all these compounds was also established by use of ultrasonication under ice-water chilling with MeOH as the solvent. This procedure was applied to the quantitative analyses of these compounds in cell cultures and hairy root cultures of Lithospermum, and in the intact plants as well. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.