Abstract: To explore the influence of fresh processing and traditional processing on the quality of Salvia miltiorrhiza, and find the best initial processing method, Salvia miltiorrhiza with different moisture content prepared by drying in shade, natural drying and drying at 60 ℃ was cut and dried at 60 ℃, and then was compared the appearance properties and determined the contents of water, extract and salvianolic acid B, cryptotanshinone, tanshinone Ⅰ and tanshinone ⅡA. The results showed that, after the Salvia miltiorrhiza with 20.27% ～28.26% of water content by drying in shade was cut and dried at 60 ℃, the water content of dried Salvia miltiorrhiza was 4.13%～4.49%, water soluble extract was 66.04%～66.50% and alcohol soluble extract was 13.73%～14.49%. At this time,the slices section of Salvia miltiorrhiza was yellow, similar to those of traditional processing. And the contents of four active components were also higher than those of traditional drying in shade. Therefore, fresh processing of Salvia miltiorrhiza could replace traditional processing for large-scale production.