Abstract: Macleaya cordata(Willd.)R.Br.is a poisonous plant of the Papaveraceae family.It contains a kind of juice with milky yellow colour,and its main poisonous compounds are isoquinoline alkaloids.In the alkaloids,Sanguinarine,Chelerythrine,Protopine and Allocryptine are more than the others.The detection of alkaloids is becoming an important research program for forensic science.The paper reviews the methods of alkaloids detection by consulting the literature,such as high performance liquid chromatography and ultra performance liquid chromatography,which are used for the poison identification.