Objective To study pharmacokinetics of curcumin in Curcuma phaeocaulis in rats in vivo.Methods HPLC method was used to determine the curcumin in rat plasma.The conditions were column: Lichrospher-5-C_(18)(250 mm?4.6 mm, 5 ?m); column temperature: 25 ℃;mobile phase: CH_3CN-5% HAc water solution(45∶55);flow: 1 mL/min;detection wavelength: 420 nm.Results The calibration curve was liner(r=0.999 5) at the range of 6.5—104 ?g/mL.The average recovery was 98.5%.RSD was 2.41%(n=5).The pharmacokinetic parameters of curcumin were as follows: k_a was 0.53/h,k_e was 0.10/h,t_(1/2ka) was 1.32 h,t_(1/2k) was 6.89 h,t_(peak) was 3.89 h,C_(max) was 93.15 ng/mL,AUC was(1 369.38) ng/mL.Conclusion This method is stable,simple,and reliable,which can be applied for the determination of curcumin in plasma and pharmacokinetic studies.