A highly sensitive chemiluminescence (CL) method for the determination of nitrofurans (NFs) was developed based on the enhancement of CL intensity of luminol–H 2 O 2 –NFs system by silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). It was supposed that the oxygen-related radicals of OH and superoxide radical (O 2 − ) could be produced when NFs reacted with H 2 O 2 . Furthermore, the enhancement mechanism was originated from the reinforcer of AgNPs, which could catalyze the generation of the OH radical. Then OH radicals reacted with luminol anion and HO 2 − to form luminol radical (L − ) and O 2 − . The excited state 3-aminophthalate anion was obtained in the reaction of L − and O 2 − , which was the emitter (luminophor) in the luminol–H 2 O 2 CL reaction system and the maximal emission of the CL spectrum was at 425nm. The experiments of scavenging oxygen-related radicals were done to confirm these reactive oxygen species participated in the CL reaction. The limits of detection (LOD) (S/N=3) were 8×10 −7 gmL −1 for furacilin, 8×10 −8 gmL −1 for furantoin, 4×10 −8 gmL −1 for furazolidone and 2×10 −7 gmL −1 for furaltadone. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of NFs in feeds and pharmaceutical samples.