A method is presented for the trace analysis of molybdenum (VI) in standard steel sample, plant tissues, animal tissues, and natural waters. The method is based on the extractive separation of molybdenum from complex matrices by chelating it with a new reagent N-p-methoxypheny1-2-furylacrylohydroxamic acid (MFHA) into isoamyl alcohol followed by spectrophotometric determination, Eight other new hydroxamic acids were studied for the same purpose and MFHA was chosen as it was the most sensitive of these as well as the other hydroxamic acids reported previously, The method enables rapid and reliable analysis of molybdenum at ppb lelvels in environmental matrices.