The applicability of heavy atom induced room temperature phosphorescence in real samples is demonstrated in this work. In this methodology only two reagents, potassium iodide as heavy atom salt and sodium sulphite as oxygen scavenger, were used to obtain phosphorescent signal of propranolol in solution. Thus a new simple, rapid and selective phosphorimetric method is proposed for propranolol determination in pharmaceutical preparations. The phosphorescence intensity was measured at 492 nm exciting at 294 nm. Phosphorescence was fully developed instantly, obtaining a linear concentration range between 0 and 500 ng ml(-1) with a detection limit of 14.4 ng ml(-1), an analytical sensitivity of 6.7 ng ml(-1) and a standard deviation of 1.4% at a 300 ng ml(-1) concentration level. The method has been successfully applied to the analysis of propranolol in an antidepressive pharmaceutical preparation and it was validated using standard addition methodology.