OBJECTIVE To study the accumulation pattern of effective components in Cistanche deserticola in different months, and to provide theoretical support for the harvesting, processing and quality control of Cistanche deserticola. METHODS Fifty-four batches of Cistanche deserticola samples were collected from April to December 2023, and a high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC) method was established for the simultaneous determination of six components in Cistanche deserticola, such as echinacoside, acteoside, tubuloside A, isoacteoside, poliumoside and geniposide, etc. The content of 54 batches of herbs were determined to analyze the trend of content changes. 54 batches of Cistanche deserticola herbs were identified and classified by chemometrics analysis, hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), principal component analysis (PCA), and orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA). RESULTS The established HPLC method was able to achieve a good separation of six components in the samples. The contents of the echinacoside, acteoside, tubuloside A, and isoacteoside, decreased gradually with the blooming of the herbs in April-August and increased in September-December while the contents of poliumoside decreased in the blooming stage of Cistanche deserticola. The content of geniposide reached its highest in the full bloom period; the content of the cyclic enol ether terpene constituent geniposide was higher in November-December than in the other periods. From the HCA and PCA analyses, it was found that 54 batches of Cistanche deserticola samples could be clearly differentiated into four groups(elongation period, full bloom period, fruit splitting period, and dormant period), among which all of them were clustered together in one group during the spring harvesting period, and the main feature was that the content of echinacoside was the highest; the samples of Cistanche deserticola samples were clustered together in one group during the autumn harvesting period, and the main feature was the lowest content of acteoside; most of the Cistanche deserticola samples at the full bloom stage were clustered into one group; all the samples at the dormant stage were clustered into one group, and the main characteristic was the highest content of geniposide.The results showed that the contents of the constituents in different growth stages of the herbs of Cistanche deserticola were significantly different. From the results of OPLS-DA analysis, it can be concluded that echinacoside and acteoside are the two components that contribute more to the different growth periods, which are the key components to distinguish the different growth periods, and can be used as the index components for evaluating the quality of Cistanche deserticola herbs, so as to further differentiate the different growth periods. CONCLUSION The HPLC method established in this study has good accuracy, and combined with chemometric analysis, it can be used to distinguish the differences in the quality of the herbs of Cistanche deserticola in different months, and provide a reference for its harvesting and quality control.