Abstract: 9Monascus strains stored in the lab were compared to test their abilities to produce ergosterol, pigment and citrinin for further utilizingMonascus strain in the future. UPLC with UV detector, UV-VIS and UPLC with fluorescence detector were adopted to measure ergosterol, pigment and citrinin produced by these 9 strains, and the correlation of these 3 compounds were evaluated by statistical methods. The results revealed that the 9Monascus strains had different abilities to produce ergosterol, pigment and citrinin. Among them, OUT 2011 (M. purpureus ) had the strongest ability to produce ergosterol and pigment, amounting to (1121.96± 55.06) mg/kg and (1058.97 ± 5.04) U, respectively; AS 3.554 (M. anka ) had the lowest ability to produce ergosterol and pigment. No citrinin was detected in red yeast rice made by strains of OUT2137 (M. pilosus ), AS 3.549 (M. ruber ), AS 3.554(M. anka ), CICC5017 (M. albidus ) and CICC5015 (M. aurantiacus ). The production of ergosterol was positively correlated with the roduction of pigment. The putative correlation between ergosterol and pigment laid a foundation for screening strain with high production of ergosterol.