The ten known carbohelicenes were rapidly and completely resolved by high performance liquid chromatography (h.p.l.c.) on short columns containing the optically active charge transfer (C.T.) complexing agent 2-(2,4,5,7-tetranitro-9-fluorenylideneamino-oxy)propionic acid (TAPA) or its 2-butyric acid homologue (TABA).