Abstract: To examine the relationship between elevated homocysteine levels,mutation of the MTHFR 677 C to T and essential hypertension in a Chinese population,a community-based case-control study was conducted. Methods: 127 essential hypertension patients of age 35 to 75 were randomly selected from a community. 170 control subjects with blood pressure ＜140/90 mmHg were selected from the same community. MTHFR genotypes were identified by PCR and restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis with Hinf I digestion. Serum homocysteine was determined using HPLC. Folate and vitamin B₁₂ were measured by radioimmunoassay. Results: After adjusting for age and sex, the mean homocysteine level was 10. 56 μmol/L for hypertensive patients and 10. 34 μmol/L for controls （P = 0. 63 ）. No association between either SBP or DBP and Hey concentration was found in subjects without anti-hypertensive medications. The prevalence of homozygousity for thermolabile MTHFR variant for this population was 13. 1 %,and the mutant allele frequency was 38. 7%. There was no significant difference on genotype distributions and the mutant allele frequency for two groups studied. However,the concentrations of folate and B₁₂ for the hypertensive subjects were generally higher than the controls. Conclusions:The present study didn’t find that elevated Hcy levels or MTHFR mutation are independent risk factors for essential hypertension. The higher folate and B₁₂ in the hypertensive subjects might contribute to lower the risk of homocysteine.