Abstract: O₃, UV and O₃/UV were separately used to treat simulated berberine pharmaceutical wastewater. The results showed that the O₃/UV process created a synergetic effect for wastewater treatment. The effects of initial pH, O₃ dosage and initial berberine concentration on O₃/UV oxidation efficiency were then investigated to determine the optimal parameters. For 1000 mg/L of berberine wastewater with pH of 5, when the ozone dosage was 279.0 mg/L and the treatment time was 45 min, the berberine removal efficiency reached 80%. As the initial concentration of berberine wastewater increased, the berberine and COD_Cr removal efficiencies decreased gradually. Finally, the O₃/UV process was used to treat real berberine wastewater. It was verified that O₃/UV process was an effective pretreatment technology which greatly improved the biodegradability of berberine wastewater, with an increase of ρ(BOD₅)/ρ(COD_Cr) ratio by 16 times.