Objective: To analyze and identify the alkaloids in Strychnos nux-vomica. Method: HPLC-ESI-MS-MS was adopted to induce the characteristic fragmentation pathways of four kinds of alkaloid reference standards, which was applied to identify the alkaloids in S. nux-vomica.Result: The diversities of their structures lead to different ESI-MS-MS fragmentation. According to the fragmentation pathways, retention times, mass charge ratio and MS-MS data, eighteen alkaloids including 8 strychnine type, 2 pseudo type, 5 N→O type and 3 N-Me type were identified from the extract of S. nux-vomica. Conclusion: This study is helpful for the quality analysis and control of the extract of S. nux-vomica.