A high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for the quantitation of ellagic acid in Nymphaea tetragona was developed for the quality control of functional cosmetic ingredient, the extract of N. tetragona. Separation and quantitation were successfully achieved with a Kromasil C18 column ($5{mu}m$, $250mm{ imes}4.6mm$, i.d.) by isocratic elution of a mixture of acetonitrile containing 0.1% trifluoroacetic acid and water containing 0.03% phosphoric acid at a flow rate of 1.0 ml/min. The UV detector was used for the detection and the wavelength for quantitation was set at 254 nm. The presence of ellagic acid in the extract was determined by comparison of retention time and spiking with authentic standard. Analytical results showed good linearity ($R^2=0.99996$) in relatively wide concentration ranges. The R.S.D. for precision test was less than 3.0%. Recovery of the compound was 98.55~101.72% with R.S.D values less than 4.0%. In conclusion, this method has been successfully applied to the determination of ellagic acid in N. tetragona.