A high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the determination of usnic acid in human plasma using diclofenac sodium as internal standard is described. Plasma proteins were precipitated with methanol. A 250 mm x 4 mm I.D. Nucleosil. C18 (5 microns) column with a mobile phase consisting of methanol-phosphate buffer (pH 7.4) (70:30, v/v) was used. Chromatography was performed at ambient temperature with flow-rate of 1 ml min-1 and ultraviolet detection at 280 nm. Each analysis required no longer than 7 min. Quantification was achieved by measurement of the peak-height ratio and the absolute recovery varied from 93.8 to 97.3%. The limit of quantitation of usnic acid in plasma was 0.25 micrograms ml-1. The intra-day relative standard deviation (R.S.D.) ranged from 1.24 to 4.53% and the inter-day R.S.D. from 2.23 to 8.25% at three different concentrations. The method was applied to the determination of plasma levels of usnic acid after intravenous and oral administration to study its disposition in a healthy male rabbit.