AIM To develop a specific liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) method for quantification of salvianolic acid A, (Sal A), and study the pharmacokinetics of Sal A after oral administrationin SD rats.METHODS SD rats were oral administered Sal A 5, l0 and 20 mg· kg-1 randomly.The plasma drug concentration was detected by a rapid and sensitive LC-MS method.The pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated from plasma concentration-time data using the DAS pharmacokinetic software Data Analysis System Version 3.0 program.RESULTS The calibration curve for Sal A was linear over a range of 2.5-1000 μg· L-1 with coefficients of correlation >0.999.The intra-and inter-day precisions (CV) of analysis were < 10%, and accuracy ranged from 95% to 110%.Stability results showed that Sal A was stable under a variety of storage and analysis conditions.After i.g.administration of Sal A 5, 10 and 20 mg· kg-1, the cmax values for Sal A were estimated to be 31.53, 57.39 and 111.91 pg· L-1, respectively.The AUC increased with increasing doses, and the AUC(0-t) values were 105.93, 167.18 and 317.11 (pg·L-1 ·h), respectively.CONCLUSION This LC-MS method israpid, sensitive and specific for the pharmacokinetic study of Sal A.The pharmacokinetic parameters of cmax and AUC have good linearity with the doses, suggesting linear pharmacokinetics.