Here we report that all types of surfactant could be simply and sensitively determined, by directly quenching the chemiluminescence (CL) between luminol and NaIO4 in a basic solution containing one polyhydroxyl compound such as cyclodextrin (CD), glucose or glycerol. This specific quenching effect was attributed to the change of the microenvironment of the CL reaction, caused by the addition of various surfactants. Based on this fact, the potential use of this CL reaction was exemplified by the cationic surfactant CTMAB, anionic surfactant SDS and non-ionic surfactant Triton X-100. It was found that the measurable range of CTMAB, SDS and Triton X-100 were 4.0 x 10(-6)-4.0 x 10(-4) M by using a basic CD-luminol-NaIO4 CL reaction. With our simple setup, CTMAB, SDS and Triton X-100 were detectable at a concentration as low as 2 microM. Overall, this new CL reaction is quite promising for the post-column determination of surfactant mixtures.