A combination of spectral experiment and molecular modeling techniques has been used to characterize the binding mechanism between an active component 5-hydroxymethyl-furfural (5-HMF) of traditional Chinese medicine and human serum albumin (HSA) or bovine serum albumin (BSA). The interaction mechanism of 5-HMF binding with HSA/BSA is analyzed. Although the drug can bind with HSA/BSA to form stable complexes, there are some differences in the bond strength. The values of binding distances (r) are different and low, which indicated the occurrence of energy transfer. The drug had conformational effect on HSA/BSA, which resulted in different changes of hydrophobic environment of the binding domain in HSA/BSA. The 'phase diagram' of fluorescence revealed that the changes on the conformational pattern of proteins have been affected by drug conformed to the "all-or-none" pattern. The interactions between drug and protein influenced by Co(II) were also discussed. Its effects acting on 5-HMF-HSA/BSA interactions are different. The computational modeling method was used to study the interaction between 5-HMF and HSA/BSA. The results of molecular model studies revealed that the binding modes for drug-serum albumin systems are mainly hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonding. These results are in accordance with spectral results. The research results have given a better theoretical reference for the study of pharmacological mechanism of 5-hydroxymethyl-furfural.