I guess u need:
a={'12-Jan-2012 14:22:00' 10
'12-Jan-2012 14:23:00' 12
'12-Jan-2012 14:24:00' 13};
c=datenum(a(:,1),'dd-mmm-yyyy HH:MM:SS');
plot(c,cell2mat(a(:,2))) % the mat2cell will only be required if you do not have double in column 2
datetick('x')