High-performance liquid chromatography with evaporative light-scattering detection (HPLC-ELSD) was employed for determination of amygdalin content in Semen Armeniacae Amarum. The detection was performed with the column of Hypersil-ODS (4.6 mm x 250 mm, 5 microm) and column temperature of 25 degrees C. The mobile phase was methanol-water (70:30) with flow rate of 0.5 ml/min. Evaporative light-scattering detector was used and the drift tube temperature was set at 98 degrees Celsius with the gas flow rate of 3.2 L/min. A standard curve was generated, which was linear in the range of 1.0-15.1 microg for amygdalin content (r=0.999 9). The average recovery of amygdalin was 99.0% with RSD of 2.9% (n=5). Besides simplicity and rapidness, the method yields accurate and reproducible results and can therefore be used in the quality control of Semen Armeniacae Amarum.