[en] This paper describes a sensitive method for the determination of ruthenium(III) and palladium(II) in mixtures (up to 16 μg ml-1 of ruthenium and 4.5 μg ml-1 of palladium) by first and second derivative spectrophotometry. The method is based upon the coloured complexes that both ruthenium and palladium form with 2-thiobarbituric acid. A statistical analysis of the experimental results is presented. (author)