In this research， the effects of different sterilization temperatures on color and related chemical substances in lotus rhizome juice were studied， and the correlation between color parameters and chemical substances was analyzed to determine the relationship with them. The results showed that the values of a， b， ?驻E and A420nm increased， the contents of reducing sugar and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural increased， and the contents of ascorbic acid， total phenol， threonine， serine， methionine， histidine and proline decreased. Compared with sterilization at 101， 111 ℃ and 121 ℃， sterilization at 81 ℃ and 91 ℃ had little effect on the color and chemical substances of lotus rhizome juice. 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural， ascorbic acid and reducing sugar were significantly correlated with ?驻E and A420nm， among which 5-hydroxymethylfurfural had the strongest correlation with ?驻E， and the coefficient reached 0.940， indicating that 5-hydroxymethylfurfural was the main factor causing the color change of lotus rhizome juice before and after sterilization. 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural was significantly related to ascorbic acid， reducing sugar， threonine and methionine. It could be inferred that the production of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural was mainly related to the oxidative decomposition of ascorbic acid and the Maillard reaction of threonine， methionine and reducing sugar.