A method for the quail-quantitative evaluation of pentachlorophenol (PCP) in solid matrixes has been developed. The procedure is based on solid-liquid extraction of solid samples (leather or wood), followed by purification on a cyanopropyl column and determination of the preservative by second derivative UV spectroscopy considering the PCP A peak-through value (304-297 nm). The method allows rapid PCP determination in the concentration range 1-40 micrograms/mL; any matrix interference is avoided by the purification step and recoveries of the preservative were 99.12% (RSD% 0.13) for the leather matrix and 98.03 (RSD% 0.17) for the wood matrix.