A flow injection procedure for the determination of bismuth in pharmaceutical products is described. The procedure is based on the formation of an ion-pair between tetraphenylarsonium and the tetraiodobismuthate(III) anion. This ion-pair is extracted with chloroform and the absorbance of the organic phase is measured at 363 or 505 nm. The detection Limit (3 x baseline s.d.) is 1.5 x 10(-6) M (35 ng). The proposed procedure has a relative standard deviation of 1.6% (3.0 x 10(-5) M, n = 12), a linear application range between 2.3 x 10(-6) and 1.5 x 10(-4) M and a sampling frequency of 40 h(-1). Under the proposed working conditions, only Pd(II), Pt(IV) and Au(III) interfere. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.