The interaction between carbamazepine (CBZ) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) was studied using fluorescence spectroscopy (FS) and ultraviolet spectroscopy (UV). The experimental results showed that the CBZ could insert into the BSA and quench the inner fluorescence of BSA by forming the CBZ-BSA complex. It was found that both static quenching and non-radiation energy transfer were the main reasons leading to the fluorescence quenching. The apparent binding constants (K) between CBZ and BSA were found to be 1.8 x 10(4) (27 degrees C) and 2.8 x 10(4) (37 degrees C) and the binding site values (n) were 0.97 (27 degrees C) and 1.01 (37 degrees C), respectively. According to the Forster theory of non-radiation energy transfer, the binding distances (r) between CBZ and BSA were 3.6 nm and 3.4 nm at 27 degrees C and 37 degrees C, respectively. The process of the binding was a spontaneous molecular interaction in which entropy increased and Gibbs free energy decreased, indicating that the interaction between CBZ and BSA was mainly driven by the hydrophobic force.