OBJECTIVE: To establish a method for determining the plasma concentration of paeoniflorin and phillyrin and pharmacokinetic study before and after intragastric administration of Qianliean granules. METHODS: LC-MS/MS method was adopted. The column was Waters C18 with mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile (A)-2 mmol/L ammonium acetate (containing 0.05% formic acid)(B) (0-9 min:15% A→50% A;9-11 min:50% A→90% A;11-17 min:90% A;17-19 min:90% A→15% A;19-20 min:15% A), at the flow rate of 0.6 ml/min; column temperature was 35 ℃ and the volume was 20 μl; quantitative ions were paeoniflorin m/z 525.2 → m/z 449.0, phillyrin m/z 552.3 → m/z 355.3. 7 SD male rats were docked to collect blood 0.5 ml from angular vein 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 24 h after administration Qianliean granule solution 1 g (medicinal materials)/kg to determine the blood concentration of drugs. DAS 2.1.1 software was employed to calculate pharmacokinetic parameters. RESULTS: The linear range of paeoniflorin and phillyri were 5.0-2 500.0 μg/L (r=0.997 9) and 2.0-2 000.0 μg/L (r=0.998 2), respectively; RSD of precision test was less than 5.5% (n=5); the method recovery were 96.0%-104.0% and 92.0%-107.0%, the extration recovery were 71.4%-83.5% and 81.5%-92.3% and RSD of stability test was less than 5.0% (n=3). The pharmacokinetic parameters of paeoniflorin and phillyrin were as follows as t1/2 of (2.206±0.631) and (1.355±0.317) h; cmax of (1 504.069±620.885) and (79.043±15.568) μg/L; tmax of (1.000±0.250) and (1.214±0.267) h; AUC0-24 h of (4 897.645±2 207.577) and (263.475±54.795) μg·h/L; CL of (5.025±2.773) and (76.253±13.986) L/(h·kg). CONCLUSIONS: The method is highly sensitive, exclusive, simple, accurate and reliable, and can be applied to study the pharmacokinetic characteristics of paeoniflorin and phillyrin in rats in vivo.