An improved method for the simultaneous determination of cocaine and its metabolites, benzoylecgonine (BE), norcocaine, and ecgoninemethylester (EME), in rat plasma and urine is described. Following derivatization of EME to p-fluorococaine, chromatography was performed on two high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) columns in series (5-microm spheric C8 and 5-microm cyanopropyl) using a mobile phase containing acetonitrile/HPLC water/trifluoroacetic acid (28:72:0.1) with bupivacaine as an internal standard. Quantitation limits were 25 ng/mL for cocaine, BE, and norcocaine and 50 ng/mL for EME using 300-500 microL rat plasma and 500 microL of rat urine. The assay was linear from the limit of quantitation to 2000 ng/mL for cocaine and its metabolites in both plasma and urine samples. Because this method uses a small amount of sample (300 microL plasma or 500 microL of urine), it is applicable to study of the pharmacokinetics and disposition of cocaine and its major metabolites.