A rapid and sensitive spectrophotometric method is developed for the quantitative determination of piperazine, piperazine salts and diethylcarbamazine citrate. The method is based on the formation of donor-acceptor complexes between the compound and chloranilic acid. The interaction product has a characteristic absorption maximum at about 345 nm. The system obeys Beer's law in the concentration range of 1–10 ugml−1of piperazine hexahydrate, adipate, phosphate, citrate and diethylcarbamazine citrate. The effects of several experimantal variables have been studied and the stoichiometric composition of the complex has been determined. The developed procedure has been found to be simple, rapid and precise and its application to various dosage forms was demonstrated and yields results comparable with the standard method.