Objective To develop a method to determine phosphide residue in Chinese herbal medicines by ICP-MS. Methods Transformed phosphide in Chinese herbal medicines into phosphoric acid， and used inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry method to determine phosphorous amount while also using ammonium phosphomolybdate colorimetricmethod to compare test methods. Results The detection limit was higher than 0.002g/L， recoveries were 86.35%～94.78%. ICP-MS method result and the ammonium phosphomolybdate colorimetric results from 10 samples showed no significant differences with low detection limit. Conclusion The method can be used for determination of phosphide residue in roots， leaves， fruits and seeds and leather of Chinese herbal medicines and providing strong support for the quality control， and thus provide a reference for safety monitoring.