The applicability of adsorption chromatography on Sephadex G-10 to the preparative purification of the salts of several mixtures of diastereomeric carboxylic acids as well as the reaction mixture from the photolysis of sorbic acid was investigated. All mixtures were separated, apparently on the basis of relative hydrophobicities of the components, demonstrating the versatility of the method for purifying water-soluble organic compounds.