& This work reports two methods developed for the determination of enantiomeric purity of canadine, the major alkaloid present in goldenseal extracts, by HPLC: 1) with physical separation of enantiomers using a chiral column with a stationary phase consisting of (S)-tert-leucine and (S)-1-(a-naphthyl)ethylamine, UV detection at 235 nm; and 2) without physical separation of enantiomers, using reverse-phase (C-18 column) and polarimetric detection at 830 nm (Diode-Laser).Pyrkle-type chiral column and photometric detection was used to obtain base-line separation of canadine enantiomers (Rs ¼ 1.78). A RP-18 achiral column and polarimetric detection provided a new nonchiral method to calculate enantiomeric purity.Enantiomeric purity of 41.6 % S-(À)-canadine and 58.4 % R-(þ)-canadine was obtained using Chirex-3019 column and photometric detection. Detection limit was 0.3 lg and linear range was 0.4 to 2 lg. RP-18 column and polarimetric detection provided a 1.5 lg detection limit and a dynamic range of 25.200 lg. Fluorimetric detection showed that R-(þ)-canadine contained 7.4 % S-(À)-canadine.Assays using chiral column and photometric detection indicated that results obtained by both methods are concordant. The methods established are appropriate for the analysis of canadine enantiomers.