Objective:To establish a sensitive and specific HPLC method for determination of the plasma concentration of palmatine and berberine in rabbit plasma and study pharmacokinetic parameters.Method:Rabbits were given Yulian cataplasm 12 g.kg-1 by transdermal administration.Then detected the plasma concentration of palmatine and berberine at different time points by HPLC and estimated major pharmacokinetic parameters.Result:The calibration curve of palmatine and berberine was linear over the range from 73.75 ng.mL-1 to 1 180 ng.mL-1 with a correlation coefficient of 0.999.The mean recovery rate of palmatine was 82.95% and berberine’s was 85.35%.The RSD within day and between days were less than 15%.The concentration-time curves of palmatine or berberine conformed to a one compartment model.The main pharmaeokinetic parameters of palmatine or berberine were estimated to be as follows:Cmax（74.208 ± 32.890）

（541.869 ± 367.341） ng.mL-1;Tmax（3.3164 ± 2.490）

（2.911 ± 2.259） h;AUC（0 ～t）（1 259.118 ± 720.882）

（9 847.251 ± 7 145.931） ng.mL-1.h-1;MRT（0 ～t）（13.492 ± 1.833）

（14.779 ± 2.430）h;t1/2（6.842 ± 2.225）

（9.913 ± 6.820）h.Conclusion:The established HPLC method is simple and sensitive to determine the concentration of palmatine or berberine in rabbit plasma andcan be used for pharmacokinetic studies.From the result of the tests

we can find that palmatine or berberine were quickly absorded

and slowly released.So Yulian cataplasm can exert long-term effects.