In this work, the primary and secondary tensile strength components of human femur trabecular bone are qualitatively assessed using planar radiographic images and spectral analysis. Normal and abnormal femur trabecular images (N = 40) were recorded using planar radiography following standard image acquisition protocol. From the images, the tensile strength components of the trabeculae are delineated using image processing procedures and are then subjected to Fourier transform. The zero (DC), First (FMOI), and Second Moments of Inertia (SMOI) are the parameters considered and are correlated with presence and absence of mineralization in the image. Results show that the values of moments correlate well with percentage mineralization in normal images when compared to abnormal images for both primary and secondary tensile strength components. Further, no or poor correlations were found for abnormals in all cases. Among all, the values of second moment showed highest correlation in the secondary tensile region. In this paper the objectives, methodology, significance results and the conclusions are presented. © 2009 World Scientific Publishing Company.