A series of materials with chemically bonded C18 phase for use as the packings in clean-up columns for solid-phase extraction were prepared. The effects of the monomeric and/or polymeric structure of the chemically bonded phase and of the porous structure of the silica gel support on the recovery of tryptophan and two of its metabolites used as test substances were considered. It appeared that the best recoveries of at least 60% of the three test substances were obtained on material of the "monomer" type containing chemically bonded C18 phase characterized by a high coverage density of alpha RP approximately 3.8 mumol/m2. The use of a silica gel support with a larger pore size and volume permits not only the effective isolation of individual substances, e.g., from urine, but also their 5-fold concentration.