Tannic acid (TA), a plant-derived polyphenol rich in hydroxyl groups, serves as both a reducing agent and stabilizer for synthesizing gold nanoparticles (TA-AuNPs). This study presents a groundbreaking method that utilizes TA to fabricate TA-AuNPs and develop two distinct colorimetric detection systems for mercury (Hg 2+ ) and iron (Fe 2+ ) ions. The first detection system leverages the interaction between TA-AuNPs and Hg 2+ to enhance the peroxidase-like activity of TA-AuNPs, facilitating the production of hydroxyl radicals upon reaction with hydrogen peroxide, which subsequently oxidizes 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) into a blue-colored product (ox-TMB). The second system capitalizes on TA-AuNPs to catalyze the Fenton reaction between Fe 2+ and hydrogen peroxide in the presence of 2, 6-pyridinedicarboxylic acid, boosting the generation of hydroxyl radicals that oxidize TMB into a blue-colored ox-TMB. Absorbance measurements at 650 nm display a linear relationship with Hg 2+ concentrations ranging from 0.40 to 0.60 μM (R 2 = 0.99) and Fe 2+ concentrations from 0.25 to 2.0 μM (R 2 = 0.98). The established detection limits for Hg 2+ and Fe 2+ are 18 nM and 96 nM, respectively. Applications to realworld samples achieved an excellent spiked recovery, spanning 101.6% to 108.0% for Hg 2+ and 90.0% to 112.5% for Fe 2+ , demonstrating the method's superior simplicity, speed, and cost-effectiveness for environmental monitoring of these ions compared to existing techniques.