A high-performance liquid chromatographic method on a 25 or 50 mm short ODS cartridge column has been developed for the resolution of the enantiomers of some optically active barbiturates and hydantoins in human serum. beta-Cyclodextrin was used in the mobile phase. This method also seems to be an easy and effective way to test whether beta-cyclodextrin would be a useful chiral discriminator for a particular racemate.