A simple and reliable method using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with a photodiode array detector (HPLC-PDA) was firstly established for the determinations of eleven bioactive compounds (neomangiferin, mangiferin, spinosin, liquiritin apioside, liquiritin, fumalic acid, 6'''-feruloylspinosin, senkyunolide I, isoliquiritin, glycyrrhizic acid and senkyunolide A) in Suanzaoren decoction (SZRD) extract and its granules. The chromatographic analysis was performed on a C18 column at 30°C. Excellent linear behaviors over the investigated concentration ranges were observed with the values of R(2) being higher than 0.9990 for all analytes. The developed method showed good precision and accuracy with overall intra- and inter-day variations of less than 2.0%, and overall recoveries in the range of 97.2 - 102.1%. The validated method was successfully applied to the determination of eleven components in SZRD samples from different production batches, including SZRD extract, lab-made SZRD granules and clinical medicine. This accurate and reliable HPLC-PDA method will be helpful for improving the quality evaluation of SZRD granules and its quality control in productive processes.