A rapid method combining molecularly imprinted polymers with surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy(MIPs–SERS) was established for the determination of theophyline illegally added into traditional Chinese Medicine.MIPs were synthesized by precipitation polymerization,and the theophylline was simply separated from the complex traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) substrates, then detected qualitatively by SERS.The structures of the newly synthesized MIPs were characterized by Fourier transmission infrared spectrometry(FT-IR) and scanning electron microscopy(SEM).The thermodynamics and kinetics and selective adsorption capacity of the MIPs，as well as the limit of detection for adulteration were also investigated.The results showed that MIPs had a better specificity and selectivity than NIPs，and the limit of detection was as low as 1 μg/L.Five kinds of real TCM relieving cough and asthma were tested，and one sample was detected to have theophylline components added illegally. With the advantages of high sensitivity，strong specificity，no pretreatment，simplicity and rapidness,the method could be used for the rapid detection of theophylline illegally added in TCM and further applied in other complicated matrix system.