In present work, cerium phytate (Ce–PA), a high-performance bio-based anticorrosion pigment was developed through a simple mixing between phytic acid and cerium nitrate. A series of epoxy coatings containing different contents of Ce–PA were prepared in order to investigate the anticorrosion performance for aluminum alloy. The microstructure, mechanical property and anticorrosion property were characterized systematically. Ce–PA exhibits a good mono-dispersity and thermal stability, and its average diameter is about 185 nm. In addition, Ce–PA can disperse homogeneously in epoxy coatings and epoxy coatings containing Ce–PA show good mechanical properties. The extract of Ce–PA shows an excellent corrosion inhibiting effect for aluminum alloy in 3.5% NaCl solution, and the highest protection efficiency is up to 98.7%. Subsequently, Ce–PA was introduced into epoxy resin to construct a composite coating in order to give aluminum alloy a long term protection. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy(EIS) and salt spray test were used to elvaluate the anticorrosion property of epoxy coating with and without defect. Epoxy coating containing 4% of Ce–PA presents the best protectiveness for aluminum alloy. The coating resistance of intact coating still keeps at 108 Ω cm2 after 50 days of immersion in 3.5% NaCl solution, and the coating resistance of the coating with artificial defect also gets to 7.5×106 Ω cm2 after 14 days of immersion in 3.5% NaCl solution. Ce–PA can hydrolize in water releasing Ce4+ and PAn-, the released Ce4+ and PAn- will transfer to Ce(OH)4 and Aln(PA) which covers on aluminum alloy surface to prevent it from corrosion. A series of study confirms that Ce–PA can be used as a high performance anticorrosion pigment to give epoxy coating a long term protection for aluminum alloy in future.