AbstractA sensitive reagent system is proposed for the determination of cyanide and hydrogen cyanide in various environmental samples. The method is based on the conversion of cyanide into cyanogen bromide followed by its reaction with pyridine to form glutaconic aldehyde. The glutaconic aldehyde so formed is coupled with p‐aminoacetophenone forming yellow‐orange polymethine dye measured at 445 nm. The colour system obeys Beer's law in the range of 0.01–0.16 ppm of cyanide inaqeous phase and 0.002–0.03 ppm in extracting system. The molar absorptivity and Sandell's sensitivity were found to be 6.51 × 105l mol−1cm−1and 0.0001 μg cm−2, respectively. The method has been successfully applied for the determination of cyanide in air, industrial effluent, biological samples, and in the pesticid