A specific ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method has been described for the simultaneous determination of caffeine, tolbutamide, metoprolol and dapsone in rat plasma, which are the four probe drugs of the four cytochrome P450 (CYP450) isoforms CYP1A2, CYP2C9, CYP2D6 and CYP3A4. The chromatographic separation was achieved using a Waters Acquity UPLC BEH HILIC C(18) column (2.1 × 50 mm, 1.7 µm). The mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile and water (containing 0.1% formic acid) (15:85, v/v). The triple quadrupole mass spectrometric detection was operated by positive electrospray ionization. Phenacetin was chosen as internal standard. Plasma samples were extracted with dichloromethane-butanol (10:1, v/v). The recoveries ranged from 67.5% to 98.5%. The calibration curves in plasma were linear in the range of 2.5-1,000 ng/mL for caffeine and dapsone, 5-5,000 ng/mL for tolbutamide and 2.5-250 ng/mLfor metoprolol, with correlation coefficient (r(2)) of 0.9936, 0.9966, 0.9990 and 0.9998, respectively. The method was successfully applied to pharmacokinetic studies of the four probe drugs of the four CYP450 isoforms and used to evaluate the effects of breviscapine on the activities of CYP1A2, CYP2C9, CYP2D6 and CYP3A4 in rats.