Salicylanilide has been incorporated into Amberlite XAD-16 through an azo spacer. Characterization of the synthesized resin was done on the basis of elemental analyses, infra-red spectral and thermal studies. The water regain value and hydrogen ion capacity were found to be 12.90 and 6.08 mmol g⁻¹ respectively. The optimum pH values for the maximum sorption of analyte were 9.0 for Cu(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Zn(II), Cr(III), and 6.0 for Cd(II) and Pb(II), respectively, with the half-loading time, t_1/2, ranging from 3.5 to 11.0 min. The breakthrough capacities for Cu(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Zn(II), Cr(III), Cd(II), and Pb(II) were found to be 697.91, 641.83, 629.32, 551.38, 531.72, 249.11 and 125.36 μmol g⁻¹, respectively, with corresponding preconcentration factors of 440, 380, 380, 360, 280, 280 and 260. The detection limits were found to be 0.56, 0.64, 0.65, 0.70, 0.75, 0.88 and 1.17 μg L⁻¹, respectively. Analysis of standard reference materials and recovery experiments were carried out for the validation of the method. Practical utility has been demonstrated by successfully determining metal ions in natural water, mango pulp, leafy vegetables and fish.