A novel method based on thermal desorption was developed for the trapping of aromatic amines from azo dyes reduction in liquid phase. Combining GC-MS, the detection limits for 21 kinds of aromatic amines ranged from 0.1 to 3 mg/kg. The recoveries of most aromatic amines were > or = 70% with RSDs < or = 10%. This method also offers low sample and organic solvent requirements, effective preconcentration and convenient procedure. It has been applied to determine aromatic amines from the real samples of textile and yielded good results.