Methyldopa reacts with barbituric acid to give a red colour having maximum absorbance at 540 nm. The reaction is selective for methyldopa with 0.01 mg/ml as visual limit of quantitation and provides a basis for a new spectrophotometric determination. The colour reaction obeys Beer's Law from 0.1 mg to 2.5 mg/10 ml of methyldopa and the relative standard deviation is 1.1%. The quantitative assessment of tolerable amount of other drugs is also studied.