A nonaqueous electrochromatographic reversed‐phase separation method for retinyl esters using continuous bed columns has been developed. The packing material was C30 modified material large‐pore silica (5 μm Nucleosil 4000 Å). The continuous bed columns were prepared by sol–gel bonding in 180 μm inside diameter fused silica capillaries. The mobile phase consisting of 2.5 mM lithium acetate in N,N‐dimethylformamide‐acetonitrile‐methanol (2+7+1, v/v) gave rise to an electroosmotic flow of 1 mm/s at 350 V/cm and 40°C. Using a 36 cm effective length column separation of the commercially available and synthesized standards (all‐trans‐retinyl acetate, palmitate, heptadecanoate, stearate, oleoate, and linoleoate) was obtained within 12 min. Separation of isomeric retinyl palmitate (13‐cis‐ and all‐trans‐retinyl palmitate) was also obtained. The selectivity was found to be temperature dependent in the temperature range investigated (30–60°C). The within‐day and between‐day variations (n=3) of retention times of all‐trans‐retinyl palmitate were 0.2% relative standard deviation (RSD) and <2.5% RSD, respectively. Further, the within‐day and between‐day variations (n=3) of peak areas were in both cases <4% RSD using injection. The column examined was stable for more than 1 month of extensive use. Liver extracts from arctic seal were analyzed. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Micro Sep 12: 561–567, 2000