A simple spectrophotometric method for the trace determination of nitrite (NO−2) is described. Nitrite is reacted with Salbutamal sulphate in acidic medium which gives a yellow colour in alkaline medium (⩾pH 7) and can be determined in the presence of several cations and anions. Beer's law is obeyed in the range of 1.8 to 27.6 ppm of nitrite with the molar absorptivity 1.8 × 1031 × mole−1× cm−1at 4l0 nm. The proposed method can also be utilized for the determination of nitrate (NO−3) after its reduction to nitrite. The method has been applied for the determination of various samples containing traces of nitrite.