Abstract: Extraction efficiency and stability of plant anthocyanins can be affected by different extraction protocols. In this paper we tested two different extraction buffers, the Na2HPO4 -citric acid (pH3.0) and 1% HCl, on the effect of anthocyanin detection from fresh roots and dried chips of sweet potato cultivar ‘Zhongtai No.8’ and ‘Jishu 18’. The anthocyanin content was calculated based on the OD525 values measured from NanoDrop ND100 and Heλios UV-VIS spectrometers, respectively. Our results shows that the anthocyanin contents of the two cultivars are different and, the extraction method using 1%HCl was able to detect anthocyanin content higher than that of Na2HPO4-citric acid buffer-based method. Prolonging the extraction time from 2 hours to 7 days did not increase the anthocyanin content and could cause partial degradation, and there is less changes in 1% HCl than the Na2HPO4 -citric acid buffer. The results detected by Nano-Drop spectrometer also showed differences with Heλios spectrometer, possibly due to the accuracy and stability of the two machines.