Aim A reliable and rapid HPLC method was developed for quantitative determination of coniferyl femlate, an ester of ferulic acid, with multiple pharmacological activities in Angelica sinensis and Ligusticum chuanxiong, two commonly used Chinese medicines. Methods The determination was achieved by using a Zorbax ODS C18 analytical column （250 mm×4.6 mm ID, 5 μm） at isocratic elution of 1% aqueous acetic acid and acetonitrile （1：1） with diode-array detection （318 nm）. The calibration curve of coniferyl femlate showed good linearity （r^2 = 0.9995） within the test range. Results The developed method showed good precision with intra- and inter-day variations of 0.22% - 1.16% and 0.86% - 2.62% between the levels of 0.380 - 0.038 mg·mL^-1, respectively. The repeatability represented as RSD of coniferyl femlate was less than 2.7% for three levels （0.2 - 1.0 g of Angelica sinensis）, and the recovery was 105.3% with RSD of 3.2%. Conclusion The validated method was successfully applied to quantify coniferyl femlate in 12 samples of Danggui and Chuanxiong.
