A graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS) method for cadmium determination in Chinese herbal medicines was prepared. In this study, 2% (NH4)2HPO4 was used as matrix modifier, which could enhance the ashing temperature and eliminate the matrix interference.Cadmium has been determined using GFAAS method with deuterium background correction. The linear ranges of cadmium was 0 to 10 µg/L and the analytical detection limits was 0.13 µg/L, respectively. The precision relative standard deviations was 3.82% and the spike recoveries range from 97.5% to 101.3%.