Objective To establish a method for the quantitative determination of 5 saponins in raw and different temperature processed panax notoginseng， which would provide the material basis of processing mechanisms and pharmacological effects differences of raw and processed panax notoginseng. Methods The contents of notoginsenoside R1 and ginsenoside Rg1、Re、Rb1、Rd were determined by HPLC simultaneously. The separation was performed on Agilent Zorbax SB-C18（4. 6mm×250mm， 5μm） column， the flow rate was 1 mL·min-1， the column temperature was 20 ℃ and the wavelength of UV detector was 203 nm. Results With this method， 5 compounds showed a good linear relationship（r≥0. 9997） with recovery range 97. 6% -101. 7%. There were differences among the contents of five saponins in raw and processed（steamed、fried and sand fried） panax notoginseng. Compared with the raw one， the contents of the 5 saponins in processed samples decreased and new components increased. Changes extent of both were relative with the heat temperature. The contents of 5 components decreased more， and newly produced components increased more in sand fried sample. Conclusion This chromatographic method can be used to content analysis and quality control of processed panax notoginseng. The processing method——sand fry is a promising method. The compositions and contents of raw and various processed panax notoginseng were both different， which may be the direct cause of the pharmacological differences among raw and various processed panax notoginseng， the more study about which is underway.