For the purposed of improving the utilization of natural chemical pigment, carthamin, of Carthamus tinctorius, the effective extraction methods on this compound were pursued in the present study. The best solvent for the extraction was found to be the 1 %(v/v) NaOH solution, at 25 hours. In addition, more carthamin was extracted flowers from main stem than fromb-ranches . The carthamin content of Korean local safflower was shown to be higher than that of Japanese variety used for medicinal uses.