Capillary electrophoresis (CE) is perceived as an attractive tool for the analysis of pharmaceuticals and biological materials because of their high separation efficiency, easy separation and low running cost. New concept of micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MECC) expanded the application of CE to the separation of neutral molecules. Validation of CE as an analytical technique for quality control of pharmaceuticals should be confirmed by quantitative analysis and the peak confirmation. In this study, the quantitative analyses of various types of neutral, acidic and basic components (acetaminophen, caffeine, ascorbic acid, riboflavin, thiamine, chlorpheniramine, phenylpropanolamine, dl-methylephedrine and dextromethorphan) in complex cold medicines have been accomplished using CE. Combined methods of MECC using SDS and capillary zone electrophoresis lowering the pH of running buffer were adopted to determine the ingredients in capsule type or liquid formula complex medicines without particular sample pretreatment. The results indicate that CE is a promising technique for quality control analysis of pharmaceuticals as a validation method.