The invention makes public a method for preparing xanthophyll crystals with higher content of zeaxanthin from plant oleoresin. The current methods generally are to get quite pure crystal forms of xanthophyll or zeaxanthin, and they refer to several separation steps. The invention mixes the xanthophyll diester-containing plant oleoresins and food grade alcohol solvents to form smooth solution, and then soap-dissolve the solution under an alkaline environment; then replenish organic solvents and emulsifiers into the reaction solution and drop some alkali solution into the solution to make partial xanthophyll crystals be transformed to be zeaxanthin through epimerization reaction; after the reaction is finished, add the mixed solvents of alcohol solvent and water to separate out the crystals; use the method of centrifugation or filtration to get the crystals; wash the crystals several times with the mixed solution of deionized water and alcohols to remove the impurities among the crystals; recrystallize the gained crystals with absolute ethyl alcohol, and then dry the crystals to get the products. The invention can gain mixture of crystals that contain xanthophyll and zeaxanthin at one time in quite high collection rate.