A validated high-performance liquid chromatography method is described for the determination of scutellarin in rat plasma using a liquid-liquid extraction and ultraviolet (UV) absorbance detection. The separation used a Diamonsil ODS column (250 mm x 4.6mm i.d., 5 microm particle size) with an isocratic mobile phase consisting of methanol-acetonitrile-50mM dihydrogen ammonium phosphate buffer (22:15:63 (v/v/v), adjusted to pH 2.5 with 1M phosphoric acid). The ultraviolet detector operated at 335 nm. Plasma samples were extracted with ethyl acetate after acidification. The extraction recovery of scutellarin ranged from 68.1 to 80.5%. High selectivity and a low quantitation limit (0.050 microg/ml) were achieved. The linear range was 0.050-12.5 microg/ml, correlation coefficient r=0.9981. The method has a good reproducibility, R.S.D. values were below 7.9% for within-day and between-day precision. The method is simple, rapid, and applicable to preliminary pharmacokinetic studies of scutellarin in rats.