A simple and sensitive reversed-phase liquid chromatographic method has been developed for the determination of amikacin (AMK) by derivatization. The method is based on the pre-column derivatization of AMK with 6-aminoquinolyl-N-hydroxysuccinimidyl carbamate (AQC). The derivatization reaction proceeds in aqueous solution at room temperature with a borate buffer of pH 8.0. The formation of the corresponding derivative of AMK is instantaneous and it is stable for more than 36 h. Detection was performed by UV-absorption instead of fluorescence. Several factors influencing the derivatization reaction yields were studied and optimized. The system offered the following analytical parameters: limit of detection (LOD) of 0.068 micro g ml(-1) (3sigma), linear correlation coefficient of 0.9998 and linear range response from 2 to 50 microg ml(-1). The precision of the method was <1%. As a preliminary application, the method has been successfully applied to the amikacin determination in parenteral pharmaceutical formulations.