A sensitive high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method for the determination of aloesin in plasma was developed. After solid-phase extraction from plasma and derivatization of aloesin and compound AD-1, which was prepared from aloesin as a internal standard, with 9-anthroylnitrile in the presence of quinuclidine, the derivatives were separated on a Inertsil ODS-3 column using acetonitrile/methanol/water (3:1:6) as a mobile phase, and detected fluorimetrically at 460nm with excitation at 360nm. The detection limit of aloesin was 3.2ng/ml in plasma (S/N=3).