There is a constant need in organic chemistry to separate both large and small quantities of mixtures efficiently, rapidly, and inexpensively. Unfortunately, it is seldom that all three of these requirements are satisfied in the commonly used chromatographic techniques. Efforts to improve these methods include the use of multibore columns, 1 flash chromatography, 2 automated systems, 3 and drycolumn chromatography. 4 We wish to report the development of vacuum liquid chromatography (VLC), a method which we feel possesses all of the desirable characteristics mentioned above. VLC has become the major method for separation of steroids and marine natural products in our laboratory. © 1979, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.