The analysis of rubber accelerators particularly zinc dithiocarbamates (ZDTCs) was carried out by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to develop an improved analytical method for the determination of rubber accelerators. Further understanding of their chemical and chromatographic behaviour has been established by investigating a few conventional as well as the latest reported methods, which include the pre-column derivatisation of ZDTCs to cobalt (III) complexes, direct determination by the addition of other protective agent and pre-column derivatisation of ZDTCs to copper (III) complexes.