Abstract: A novel surfactant was prepared from lignin-amine modified by rosin ester, which was synthesized from rosin and epichlorohydrin. The surfactant was characterized by IR 、UV and the automatic surface tensiometer, and its physico-chemical properties were also measured. The introduction of abietyl groups as hydrophobic groups in lignin-amine, by O-alkylation reaction, enhanced the performance of the surfactant. The experiment results showed that the synthesis conditions for rosin ester were optimized as follows: the molar ratio of rosin to epichlorohydrin was 1: 1.5, reaction temperature was 100℃, reaction time was 6h. Under these conditions, the conversion rate of rosin was up to 95.6%. When the molar ratio of lignin-amine to rosin ester was 4, the surface tension of the surfactant reached 33.2 mN/m at a concentration of 10 g/L hydrochloric acid aqueous solution with a pH 2.0. The emulsifiability of the surfactant was 74 min. In contrast, the surface tension of lignin-amine at the same condition was 48.5 mN/m, and it’s emulsifiability was 43 min. As expected, the performance of the surfactant was improved by abietyl groups.