An efficient on-line purity monitoring strategy based on on-line coupling of high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) with high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) was successfully applied for the first time to the isolation and purification of 5-hydroxymethyl-furancarboxaldehyde (5-HMF), mangiferin and neomangiferin from the Chinese medicinal plant Anemarrhena asphodeloides Bunge, a plant used in the traditional Chinese medicine. The introduction of on-line purity monitoring in HSCCC has greatly improved the efficiency of this technique by overcoming the drawbacks of post-purification sample handling in HSCCC isolation. The effluent from the outlet of HSCCC was split into two parts, and one was collected, while the other was introduced directly through a switch valve into a HPLC-DAD system for purity monitoring. Using this method the desired fractions with high purities could be collected. From 600 mg partially purified extract, 165.6 mg neomangiferin and 292.8 mg mangiferin with purities of 98.9 and 99.5%, respectively, were obtained with a two-phase solvent system composed of n-butanol-water (1:1, v/v) by increasing the flow-rate of the mobile phase stepwise from 1.0 to 2.2 ml min(-1) after 210 min. A 17.1mg 5-HMF with purity of 96.6% was also isolated for the first time.