It is shown, in the case ofthe diketone 2, that chromatography with achiral phases of a non-racemic mixture of enantiomers can furnish fractions which differ in enantiomeric excess. Such chromatography may, therefore, be used to further enrich a sample in one enantiomer. By thc same token, chromatography is not a generally safe method for the purification of the product of an enantio-differentiating process, if the enantiomeric excess of a purified portion of that product is taken to be a measure of the efficiency of the process. The described effect represents an enantiomer differentiation induced solely by an alredy existing enantiomeric excess during chromatography. It thus belongs to a class of effects where the relative amounts of two enantiomers induce an observable difference between them. Such effects are called EE effects. The coinmon principle underlying EE effects is explained by a simple symmetry argument. Since EE effects can also occur during reactions with achiral reagents, further transformations of an enantionier-enriched product may furnish false information on its enantiomeric excess.

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