The invention discloses a preparation method of 
cinnamic acid or derivatives thereof. The method comprises the following steps: adding a 
dichloromethane solution of triethyl phosphonoacetate, 
sodium chloride and 
raw material aldehyde into a reaction container, performing room-temperature reaction, adding a saturated water solution of 
ammonium chloride, stirring, performing organic phase washing, performing reduced pressure treatment to remove a 
solvent, and performing 
column chromatography purification to obtain a light yellow oily product; adding a 
mixed solution of 
dichloromethane and 
methanol into a 
reaction product, stirring, dropwise adding a 
methanol solution of 
sodium hydroxide to generate a large quantity of turbid materials, performing reduced pressure 
distillation on a reaction solution until the reaction solution is dry, removing impurities, extracting, combining organic phases, 
drying, performing reduced pressure treatment to remove the 
solvent, and 
drying in vacuum to obtain a white or light yellow product. According to the method, triethyl phosphonoacetate is adopted as an activating 
reagent for condensation esterification with 
aldehyde and then the product is conveniently prepared through 
alkaline hydrolysis; the reaction can be carried out at 
room temperature, and the shortcomings of low yield, high 
reaction temperature, high 
toxicity and serious 
pollution in a conventional process are overcome.