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Bamboo leaves of Phyllostachys nigra (PN), Lophatherum gracile (LG), and Pleioblastus amarus (PA) are three common herbs in China. In this work, a new high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for the simultaneous determination of seven compounds in bamboo leaves has been developed; and PN, LG, and PA leaves were analyzed. PN showed four times as much chlorogenic acid (CA) than the other two, and contained the most isoorientin (iso-ORI) and isovitexin (iso-VIT) as well. The PA presented the most orientin (ORI) and LG covered a majority of cynaroside (CYN). We measured the antioxidant activity by scavenging the stable 2,2-diphenyl-1-pyridinohydrazinyl (DPPH) free radicals, and found that Luteolin (inhibitory concentration (IC)50 = 0.42 µM, LUT) and CYN (IC50 = 0.43 µM) showed 2–3 times higher antioxidant activity than iso-ORI (IC50 = 0.81 µM), ORI (IC50 = 0.84 µM), and other related antioxidant standards such as trolox (IC50 = 0.97 µM) and ascorbic acid (IC50 = 0.93 µM, VC). Among extracts, PN and PA showed considerable antioxidant activity, which was related well with the contents of CA, iso-ORI, and iso-VIT (p < 0.05). This study firstly provides evidence for functional antioxidant compounds of bamboo leaves based on statistical analysis of the HPLC analysis and DPPH assay, and it lays a foundation for its further development or utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]