Chemiluminescence (CL) of permanganate system in the presence of polyphosphoric acid (PPA), ethanol and Tween 60 was investigated and implemented using flow-injection analysis (FIA) to determine cinnarizine (C) in pharmaceutical preparations. Five hundred microliter samples were injected and the sample throughput was 130h-1. Preliminary experiments identified Tween 60 as the surfactant of choice, improving the detection limit of the CL system 20-fold. Optimum CL signals were given using 7.5×10 -4moll-1 potassium permanganate in 0.02moll-1 polyphospheous 1.5×10-3moll-1 Tween oric acid as the oxidant stream and a carrier stream of 10% (v/v) of ethanol in aqu60 with a total flow rate of 7.6mlmin-1. The calibration graph was linear over the range 0.5-6.0μgml-1 (r=0.9963, n=7). The detection limit (3σ) was 18ngml-1 and the percentage recovery of spiked tablet solutions was 98.4-100.2. © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.