A simple and rapid spectrophotometric method has been found for the determination of nitrate content in natural water according to brucine method by means of neither particular apparatus nor troublesome procedures. Brucine reacted with nitrate in the presence of 30 N sulfuric acid to develop stable color with good reproducibility after 30 minutes reaction at <TEX>$60^{circ}C$<TEX>. An essentially linear relationship to the nitrate concentration was observed in the range of 0.07~0.6 ppm at 410 nm, and it was established that the number of absorbing species in the reaction system was only one between 400 and 490 nm. Among the interferences, nitrite could be removed by the addition of methanol.