diff --git a/src/PHPHtmlParser/Dom.php b/src/PHPHtmlParser/Dom.php
index f3e17ff..06dcc78 100644
--- a/src/PHPHtmlParser/Dom.php
+++ b/src/PHPHtmlParser/Dom.php
@@ -373,7 +373,9 @@ protected function clean($str)
         $str = mb_eregi_replace("<!doctype(.*?)>", '', $str);
 
         // strip out comments
-        $str = mb_eregi_replace("<!--(.*?)-->", '', $str);
+        if ($this->options->get('removeComments')) {
+            $str = mb_eregi_replace("<!--(.*?)-->", '', $str);
+        }
 
         // strip out cdata
         $str = mb_eregi_replace("<!\[CDATA\[(.*?)\]\]>", '', $str);