An electrochemical sensor based on chemically reduced graphene (CRG) was developed for the sensitive detection of rutin. To construct the base of the sensor, a novel composite was initially fabricated and used as the substrate material by combining CRG and beta-cyclodextrin (beta-CD) via a simple sonication-induced assembly. Due to the high rutin-loading capacity on the electrode surface and the upstanding electric conductivity of graphene, the electrochemical response of the fabricated sensor was greatly enhanced and displayed excellent analytical performance for rutin detection from 6.0 x 10(-9) to 1.0 x 10(-5) mol L-1 with a low detection limit of 2.0 x 10(-9) mol L-1 at 3 sigma. Moreover, the proposed electrochemical sensor also exhibited good selectivity and acceptable reproducibility and could be used for the detection of rutin in real samples. Therefore, the present work offers a new way to broaden the analytical applications of graphene in pharmaceutical analysis. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.