The invention provides a method for detecting effective ingredients of isodon lophanthoides. According to the detection method, the content of isoschaftoside, isoschaftoside and rosmarinic acid in isodon lophanthoides is determined by employing HPLC; and the conditions of HPLC comprise: a C18 reversed phase chromatographic column employing octadecylsilane bonded silica as a filling agent is employed, the mobile phase comprises a mobile phase A which is methanol, and a mobile phase B which is a 0.1% (volume) aqueous solution of phosphoric acid, and gradient elution is performed; the program of gradient elution comprises: 0-30 min, 30% of the mobile phase A and 70% of the mobile phase B; 30-70 min, 30% -> 50% of the mobile phase A, and 70% -> 50% of the mobile phase B, wherein the ratio of the mobile phases employs the volume percentage. The detection method successively helps to realize simultaneous determination on content of effective ingredients flavonoids and rosmarinic acid in isodon lophanthoides by employing HPLC, and the data can be used to characterize the medicinal material quality of isodon lophanthoides. A chromatogram of the content of isoschaftoside, isoschaftoside and rosmarinic acid is shown in the specification.