Abstract: Haematococcus pluvialis is a potential source for astaxanthin accumulation under the unfavorable condition,which has gained more and more attention in recent years.In this paper,different concentration of Butyl hydroxyanisole( BHA) were studied for their affection the production of astaxanthin in Haematococcus pluvialis LUGU.The results indicated that the 2 mg / L BHA was optimal for astaxanthin production with 29.03 mg / g,which was 2.03 times that of the control( 14.30 mg / g).Moreover,the accumulation of astaxanthin in the algae cells,which were in the late- exponential growth phase( 14 d),reached the highest production of 29.3 mg / g( 2.9,1.01 and 1.72 times than that of other cells). The result showed the BHA was an effective inductor for astaxanthin accumulation and the different condition of algae cells was important for astaxanthin production with two- stage strategy.