OBJECTIVE: To determine the concentration of cefdinir in rat plasma, and investigate its pharmacokinetics. METHODS: High performance capillary electrophoresis (HPCE) was adopted by using fused-silica capillary (75 μm, total length of 30 cm, effective length of 21.5 cm), buffer solution of 20 mmol/L citric acid, injection voltage of 10 kV for 10 s, separation voltage of -20 kV, and detection wavelength of 214 nm. 6 rats were intragastrically received cefdinir solution (20 mg/kg). 0.2 mL blood sample was taken from the tail vein before and 0.25, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12, 24 h after administration. BAPP 2.0 software was used to calculate the pharmacokinetics parameters. RESULTS: The linear range of cedinir ranged 0.2-50 μg/mL (r=0.999 7), lower limit of quantification was 0.2 μg/mL. The intra-day (n=6) and inter-day RSDs of (n=3) precision test were no more than 12.2%; RSD of stability test was no more than 9.10% (n=6); method recovery rate was 95.4%-114.3% (RSD=9.0%, n=6); matrix effect was 63.5%-70.2% (RSD=10.39%, n=6). The t1/2 of cefdinir in rats in vivo was (0.54±0.01) h, MRT was (1.90±0.14) h, cmax was (32.92±0.81) μg/mL, tmax was (1.50±0.02) h, AUC0-24 h was (46.65±0.44) μg·h/mL and AUC0-∞ was (46.83±0.44) μg·h/mL. CONCLUSIONS: The method is rapid, accurate and simple, and can be used for the determination of cefdinir concentration in rat plasma and its pharmacokinetics research.