Two recent papers in the Journal of Liquid Chromatography and Related Technologies report the isolation of polar natural products with butanol-water biphasic solvent systems. “Isolation and Purification of Three Flavonoids from Hawthorn Leaves by High Speed Countercurrent Chromatography…” 32: 2216-2231 and “Preparative Separation of a Phenylpropanoid Glycoside from Scrophularia ningpoensis Hemsley by High Speed Countercurrent Chromatography…” 32: 2322-2333. In the first article 4’”-O-rhamnosyl and two other flavonoid glysosides were separated with a simple n-butanol/water (1:1) solvent system. Two component biphasic solvent systems are relatively rare in the literature. In the second article angoroside C was separated with an n-butanol/ethyl acetate/water/acetic acid 8:1:10:1 solvent system. Both compounds mentioned contained three pyranosyl saccharides and were thus quite polar. Butanol/water combinations seem to represent the limit of what can be achieved in polar separations without the use of inorganic salts. Butanol/water combinations are not the most accommodating for CCC because they tend to give stationary phase volume retention ratios of less than 0.5 and the solvents are difficult to evaporate.