Trizol reagent was used for RNA isolation from fresh leaves of Dendrocalamopsis oldhami, Bambusa ventricosa and Phyllostachys aureosulcata cv. Pekinensis. The extracted RNA from leaves had the normal ultraviolet absorption, the value of OD26(/OD280 varied between 1.8-2.0. The 28s rRNA was more than two times brighter than 18s rRNA in electrophoresis. These results indicated that the total RNA was complete and not degraded. According to our experiments, RNA could be obtained simply with this method, and can be used for molecular manipulation such as cDNA synthesis and gene cloning.