A spectrophotometric procedure for the determination of ampicillin (Amp.) in pure solutions and in its pharmaceutical preparations has been developed. This new method offers advantages of simplicity, rapidity and stability in comparison with the official BP (1980) method. The proposed method is based on the formation of a colour condensation product through the reaction of ampicillin and nitrobenzene derivatives in an alkaline aqueous-acetone medium 40% (v/v). Beer's law is obeyed in the range 0.5–28 μg ml−1. The colours were produced within 20 min. after heating at 60±5°C and stable for at least 6 h. The method is relatively accurate (recovery 100±2%) and precise (RSD 1.9%) and can be used successfully for the preparation of capsules, syrup and ampoules.