Reversed-phase ion-pair chromatography, using cetyltrimethyl ammonium hydrogensulphate as detergent, has been applied to the analysis of the highly polar glyoxylate-derived 1,3-thiazolidines 1, 2 and 3. On the base of this high-performance liquid chromatographic separation of the diastereomeric compounds 1a/b and 3a/b was achieved. Removal of the hydrophobic couterion by precipitation as its insoluble iodide, followed by an extraction with chloroform, seems to be a promising first step to establish ion-pair-assisted chromatography as a preparative high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the isolation of polar compounds.